Stolen Love
by lovegood27
Summary: I was actually excited to go to Hogwarts but this year has been shitty so far. Mainly because of HIM. The boy I have been crushing on since forever has decided to go off with my best friend.
1. Chapter 1: Some Things About My Family

"For Merlin's sake, Tamara, HURRY UP!," Mum yelled from downstairs. I dropped 'Quidditch Through The Ages' and hastily shoved it in my bag. My hair was tangled and messy but I ignored it as I quickly made my way downstairs. Mum winced at my appearance but didn't mention it.

"Where are Fred and Prim?," she asked me in a slightly accusing way. I resisted the urge to snort. As if I knew.

"I don't know," I said, annoyed, "I thought they were already down here, judging by the way I was the only one you were yelling at."

Mum glared at me and I smiled to myself. In case you haven't noticed, me and my mum don't get on very well, unless Mum's in one of her weird I'm-gonnal-be-nice-to-everyone-including-Tammy-even-though-she's-my-least-favourite-child moods. Which is literally never. Okay, fine, about once a year. I could tell Mum wanted to yell at me but she couldn't because Dad was here and I think his life's mission is to attain world peace or something.

"Well run up and tell them to hurry up then," Mum snapped at me. I sighed and made my way back upstairs (which wasn't easy, we have stairs like The Burrow. Rose Weasley is my best friend in case you're wondering how I've been there before.) I went into Fred's room and peeked in. My twin brother was sitting on his bed, spraying himself with cologne. Really? Fred, wearing cologne?

"Trying to impress someone?" I smirked at him. He gave me a glare and I fell silent. Fred knew who I had a crush on, he had overheard me telling Rose, and though he had teased me for weeks on end, he knew better than to tell because ke knew that I would go and hex him to death. Our wand duels at Hogwarts were basically legendary. Sort of. Anyway, I didn't actually know who it was that Fred fancied but I suspected it was one of my roommates, Ariadne Corner. I don't blame him. Ariadne was also on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, like me, and she was very pretty and kind.

"Like I'd actually tell you who I fancied," Fred snorted.

"Come on, you know who I like so you have to tell me who you like," I said. Fred raised his eyebrows.

"That's not the way the world works, little sis."

"I'm only 6 minutes younger than you!," I reminded him, "At least tell me the first letter of her name or something," I added, steering us back to the topic of Fred's crush. I didn't really need him to tell me, it was pretty obvious, but more to confirm my suspicions.

"A...," Fred said reluctantly. I gasped.

"It's Ariadne! I knew it! OMG, wait till I tell her, you know she likes you don't you?," I said to Fred. He raised his eyebrows at my reaction, but I could see him going a bit red. Suddenly remembering why I was even in Fred's room I said "We need to hurry otherwise Mum'll start-".

"Tamara and Fred, get down here right now!"

"Yelling," I finished. I ran down the stairs, Fred behind me. My little sister, Primrose was already down there all ready to go. I felt guilty for holding them up, but it was only 10 o'clock and it wasn't my fault Mum made us get to Kings' Cross forty minutes early. Mum scowled at us.

"What took you so long?," she scolded, "Prim came down nearly 10 minutes ago!" Oh blesses little St. Primrose. I loved my little sister dearly but I was sorely sick of her being Mum's favourite and getting all the attention. She was also Dad's favourite but at least he still paid us some attention. Mum liked her because she was sweet and intelligent and looked like an angel. Dad liked her because she was calm and rarely shouted or argued, whilst me and Fred had a constant battle going against each other. Well back to the present tense.

"Never mind, it's only 10 o'clock, we've still got plenty of time," Dad said quickly. Always the peacemaker.

We got to Kings' Cross and went through the barrier without any Muggles seeing us (well, apart from Mum but that's beside the point, she already knows about wizards and witches.) As I stepped back into the Wizarding World and saw the gleaming Hogwarts Express, I felt a bubble of joy and excitement and couldn't stop myself from grinning. It was so good to be back with wizards and witches. I has missed Hogwarts so much, even the lessons. I had especially missed playing Quidditch and going to Hogsmeade. I came out of my train of thought and looked around. Mum and Dad had gone to talk with some other parents I barely recognised, Prim had gone to find her fellow Ravenclaw friends and Fred had gone to talk to his Slytherin mates. Yes, he's a Slytherin, don't judge. And yes, me and my siblings are all in different houses don't judge us on that either. I looked around for some of my friends and heard a shout. I turned to see my best friend, Rose, running towards me and the next thing, I was being attacked with a hug. "I missed you Rosie," I said, when I had broken away from her.

"Me too," she replied, "Where's Vi, by the way?" I pointed as we made our way onto the train. A tall black-haired girl had come out of a compartment. She's my other best friend, Violetta Smith.

"Hi," she greeted us, "I was talking to my brother about something, shall we go find a compartment?" The three of us walked along the passage and into an empty compartment. The train was starting to move as we sat down. I felt excited again as I waved to my parents. I was going back to Hogwarts. A new year was beginning.

* * *

A/N: Hi! This is my first ever fan fiction so please leave a review for me so I can try to improve it. Thanks! :)


	2. Chapter 2: Some Things About My Friends

"I'm gonna go get changed," Rose announced after 10 minutes. I rolled my eyes, as I went back to my Potions essay on Amortentia that I couldn't be bothered to do during the holidays. Violetta sat next to me, giving me advice and correcting my mistakes.

"Tam, Amortentia doesn't smell of wood, rain, chocolate and lemon tart," she told me, half exasperated, half amused. I shrugged.

"Vi, there's a reason I'm not in Ravenclaw," I told her, pretending that she hadn't just discovered what Amortentia smelt like to me. She gave me a smirk, a glint in her eye.

"Who on earth smells rain?," she said, still smirking. I was getting annoyed.

"Well I'm sorry I don't smell elderflower and your boyfriend's cologne," I snapped, "Can you just go back to helping me?And," I added, "Rain's not even that bad. It smells fresh. You just don't like it because you never have an umbrella with you when it's raining and then all your makeup gets ruined." I looked at her triumphantly, knowing I had won, because it was 100% true and she couldn't argue back. I was surprised to see she wasn't wearing her embarrassingly defeated expression she always had on when she lost one of our mini bickers. Vi was staring at me coldly, looking a bit sulky.

"I don't have a boyfriend anymore," she said to me, waiting for my reaction, which I knew she knew would be shocked. And I was. Violetta wasn't the kind of girl who got new boyfriends and dumped them every week. Neither was she the type to go round snogging boys when she already had a boyfriend. So it must have been her boyfriend that cheated on her. Anger surged into me.

"You and Max, or whatever his name was, you guys broke up didn't you?," I said, knowing the answer and dreading it. Violetta shrugged, deciding to avoid my question.

"His name's Mattheo," she told me unnecessarily. She checked her watch. "I'll go check where Rose is." She got up and started quickly making her way towards the door.

"No, stay here and answer my question," I said sharply. "Rose has only been gone for 10 minutes." Violetta sighed, and came back and sat down again, her fingers fiddling with her wavy black hair, as they always did when she was nervous. "Come on, Vi," I said in a softer tone, "You can tell me, I'm your best friend." Vi looked at me forlornly, her sapphire eyes sparkling with tears.

"He cheated on me," she said, her voice breaking. "I saw him in the park during the holidays, snogging another girl and-" She broke off as her tears started falling and she started sobbing. I hugged her, holding her close as she cried on my shoulder.

"I'm okay now," she said after a while. I let go off her and got up, pulling my wand from my pocket as I did so. Vi looked at me, her eyes wide.

"You're going to go beat him up aren't you?," she said fearfully. I scoffed. "I

"I wouldn't call it beating up," I said, going out of the door. Violets laid a hand on my shoulder, something she only did when she was desperately trying to stop me doing something. Usually a prank.

"You shouldn't do it. You'll get into trouble and get into detention and it will all be for nothing." She was practically begging me now.

"Sometimes I wonder why you're in Gryffindor," I said lightly. I smiled at her. "Don't worry, I won't get into trouble, I promise," I reassured her. "That boy needs to be taught a lesson. Besides, it'll be fun. Who was he snogging, by the way?" I asked. "It

"It was that Hufflepuff girl, Alana Davies," Vi said, her voice full of hatred. Oh right, Davies. She was one of those stupid sluts I was talking about earlier. You'd think a Hufflepuff would never cheat on someone's boyfriend. People usually thought that Hufflepuffs were kind and loyal which was pretty true but they also thought they were nobodies who just didn't have a life because they weren't good enough for the other houses. Not so true.

But anyway, I would have to sort Davies out as well. I walked along the passage, trying to find the right compartment. I passed Alana's compartment, where she sat gossiping with her friends, looking particularly smug. I moved on before she could see me, as I spotted Mattheo in the next compartment. He and all his friends looked up as I entered.

Mattheo looked at me pleasantly, giving the impression that he had been expecting me.

"Wood," he said, "How nice to see you. This is about Violetta, I presume?" He spoke casually, as though Violetta was simply a little child who had misbehaved. My blood boiled with anger.

"Drop your fucking act, Flint," I said coldly. "You cheated on Violetta. She cared for you so much you didn't even realise and then you go and snog some random bitch you've barely spoken to." My voice was rising, I knew. I couldn't help it, I was angry. Mattheo stood up so he was face to face with me, pulling out his wand as he did so.

"Petrificus Totalus!," I cried as he opened his mouth to utter a spell. Without enough time to say the Shield Charm, he fell face forward, his limbs snapped together. "Stupefy!," I said to the other boys, as they stared at me. I rushed out as they slumped onto their seats. Luckily, old Professor Slughorn (yes he still alive, don't ask me how) was coming my way and he was becoming a bit short-sighted so he wouldn't have seen anything.

"Professor Slughorn!," I said, running up to him. "Alana Davies has just attacked everyone in this compartment" I pointed. "I saw her running off just now." Slughorn looked very concerned and quite distressed. "Oh dear, Miss Davies? I had better find her at once" He went off to find Alana. I grinned as I went back to my compartment.

"Did you sort them out?," Rose asked me as I came back. Vi had obviously told her everything when I had left. Rose had her fists clenched and she had turned her signature shade of tomatoey looked quite funny, as her long hair was basically the same exact shade. I bet she would have liked to deal with them as well, what with her being a Weasley and everything. The Weasley's are known for their tempers. I grinned at them both.

"Oh don't worry," I told them. "I sorted them out. AND Alana too. She'll be getting 2 weeks of detention from Slughorn, I expect." Vi smiled at me gratefully, sniggering a little, and Rose put on that triumphant expression of hers that every member of her family has. Alana would NOT like getting detention from her favourite teacher. I smiled to myself.

A/N: Sorry I still haven't written anything on Tamara's crush yet, but it will all be in the next chapter! Please leave a review! 


	3. Chapter 3: Crushes and Flirts

The trolley came round some time after I had returned. I swear the old witch who was pushing it has been around for like 30 years. Or more. Seriously.

"Anything from the trolley, dears?," she asked us.

"Yes please," I said, getting up. "I'll have a Chocolate Frog and some of the Glowing Gum." I paid her the money and sat back down.

"Anything from the trolley?," the old witch asked Violetta and Rose.

"I'll have 2 Pumpkin Pasties and a Liquorice Wand," Violetta said.

"That will be a Sickle." Violetta nodded and took out her purse from her jeans pocket. "Oh shit!," she burst out suddenly, "I forgot to change my Muggle money to Wizarding money! Sorry about that," she added apologetically to the witch, who was looking very shocked at Violetta's swearing." I won't get anything." She sat down, looking gloomy.

"It's fine," I told her, "I'll get it for you." I gave the witch a silver coin

"Tamara, could you get me some Every Flavour Beans as well," Violetta asked. I smirked at her as I handed the witch more Knuts.

"What," Violetta asked me defiantly, "I'm hungry! I didn't have any breakfast!"

"Such a believable story," I joked. She stuck her tongue out at me. So mature.

"And you?," the forgotten old witch asked Rose, "Anything sweet for you, dear?"

"No thank you," Rose replied politely but firmly. "I'm on a no-sugar diet." 

* * *

We were sitting there 5 minutes later eating our snacks, Rose wolfing down her 3 Cauldron Cakes when the door to our compartment slid open. My heart jumped into my throat and millions of butterflies swam into my stomach. Because standing there was the boy that I had been crushing on since first year, James Sirius Potter.

"Hey Rosie, Tamara," he greeted us. "Smith," he nodded at Violetta. Her cheeks tinged pink, whether it was because he had spoken to her or because he had addressed her by her surname, I don't know. I looked out of the window. The sky was darkening and we were in familiar countryside.

"I'm gonna go change, we're nearly at Hogwarts," I said. "Vi, are you coming?" She shook her head.

"Later," she said.

"Catch you later, Tamara," James said as I went out the door. I hurried along the corridor, smiling to myself. I had gotten to know James really well last year. Violetta hadn't really because the only class where James sat with us was Charms and she had failed her Charms OWL. We're doing our OWLs in fourth year now, it's outrageous. Anyway, sixth and seventh years took their NEWT classes together, so I was with James even though he was in the year above me. Basically, I had become relatively good friends with James and I was happy about that. 

* * *

I returned to my compartment to find James still sitting there and Violetta flirting with him. FLIRTING. She knows I've had a crush on him since first year and she's still flirting with him. And she's supposed to be my friend. Since when did Violetta have a crush on James? Now that I thought about it, probably a while ago. Last year, she had tried out for the Gryffindor Quidditch team. She wasn't even interested. Fuck's sake, she barely knew what a CHASER was. She was probably just doing it because of James. I don'y even need to mention the fact that he's Captain.

Hurt by her betrayal, I took my seat. Violetta had taken it but she moved along and then crossed over so that she was sitting next to James. I looked at her enquiringly.

"I'm a bit dizzy but it's not so bad when I face the front," she told me. I suppressed the urge to snort. And yell at her. With difficulty. She had NEVER been carsick in her life. Ever. I hated her at that moment. I looked at the pair of them. Violetta was giggling at everything James said and James himself was looking at her in a kind of longing way. Honestly, she hasn't said a single thing about herself and she's not even that pretty. Okay, fine, yeah she is. Really. Much prettier than me.

"I'm getting changed," Violetta spoke, causing me to snap out of my mental raging session. At HER.

"I'm gonna go back to my compartment," James said. "See you guys later. Bye Vi."

Wow. He goes from calling her Smith to Vi. AND says a personal goodbye to her. Not even Rose and she's his COUSIN. I have to admit, Violetta was a good flirt. Well it's easy for, though. She just has to simper and toss her long, wavy black hair and she has millions of blokes falling for her.

I swear James will start dating her at this rate. If Violetta dates James, I swear I will kill her. Actually, no, I wouldn't because then I would be thrown in Azkaban (not that I would have actually killed her). I would probably duel her. Rose can be my second. Ariadne can be my third. Or Primrose, even though she's terrible at duelling. Fred is really good, even better than me, which is saying something, but he would never back me up if I died. Not that I would have died.

I will just have to flirt even more with him then.

Sometimes I envy Violetta. She is pretty and she is an extremely good flirt (as has just been proven) but I am still seething at her betrayal and mentally cursing her in my head.

Fuck Violetta, fuck Violetta. Bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch.

I'm not going mad, trust me. 

* * *

A/N: Sorry this chapter is so short. Did you like it though? Please let me know and review! :) 


	4. Chapter 4: Back At Hogwarts

Chapter 4: Back at Hogwarts

As I stepped off the train I heard the familiar but now slightly old voice of Hagrid calling "Firs' years! Firs' years follow me!" I smiled to myself. It felt so good to be back.

"Come on, let's go find a carriage," I told Rose and Violetta as they stepped of the train.

We made our way over to to the carriages I stopped to stroke one of the Thestrals. Yes I can see Thestrals. So can Fred, but Primrose can't because she wasn't there with us when we saw death.

It happened at one of our family gatherings that we always have at Christmas, when I was in third year. It still haunts me now because it was partly my fault that our Great Aunt Katie-who mum was named after-died. I was chasing Fred because he had stolen my broom and I needed it since I hadn't practised Quidditch all Christmas and I would have been kicked off the team. So I was chasing Fred as he ran towards the stairs but Great Aunt Katie was coming up them and Fred had just turned around to taunt me and as soon as he turned around...it was horrible. Great Aunt Katie went flying down the stairs and fractured her skull. She died soon after being taken to hospital.

I've often wondered what it was like for Fred, knowing that he caused the majority of the accident. If it was guilt he was feeling like me, then he hid it well. But then again, so did I.

Looking the Thestral in the eye, I found all the memories that I had been trying to erase flooding back. This always happened but I still petted Thestrals. I liked them. They were my favourite animals apart from Hippogriffs. Hagrid taught us about them and he got us all to ride them. It was an amazing experience.

"'Mara, are you going to come or not?," Violetta said impatiently, bringing me out of my train of thoughts.

"I'm coming, don't fuss," I said irritably, "Be more like a Hufflepuff will you?" Violetta rolled her eyes.

"Gryffindors act like Gryffindors, not like Hufflepuffs," Violetta said, smirking at me, "Now hurry up."

I got off the carriage, waiting for Rose and Violetta to get off too so we could get to the Great Hall. I was starving.

Rose got off, looking back at Violetta, who was looking deathly pale.

"Vi, are you okay?," I asked her, worried.

"Yes I'm fine," she said stubbornly as she obviously wasn't. A moment later, she broke out into a fit of coughing.

"Right," Rose said firmly, putting an arm around her. "You are definitely not okay, you're coughing and burning hot, not to mention the fact that you look like a ghost. Let's get you to the Hospital Wing." I made to follow them, but Rose shook her head at me.

"You go on," she mouthed. I shrugged and followed the rest of the students into the Hall. Ariadne Corner came over and sat down next to me.

"Hi Tamara," she greeted me. "Did you have a good summer?"

"It was okay," I said. "We didn't go anywhere so it was a bit boring and the weather was shit. What about you?"

"Oh, it was quite nice actually," Ariadne replied, "We went to France and you would not believe how many witches and wizards live there."

The Sorting Hat began singing its yearly song which I'm pretty sure had no words that rhymed anymore (well fine, it's old) but I didn't really pay attention. None of the older students really did. When it ended, I joined in with the applause and tapped Ariadne on the shoulder.

"The Sorting's about to start," I smirked, as she forced her eyes away from the Slytherin table. 3 guesses who she was staring at. Fred was sitting near the middle, being far too obsessed with his spoon. I sighed, annoyed. Clearly Ariadne liked him, instead of avoiding her, why couldn't he just ask her out?! I turned my attention away from Fred's live life to the Sorting.

"Lavinia, Ashton!" A tall girl with her brown hair in a French plait came up and put the Hat on. The Sorting Hat paused for a few moments before shouting "GRYFFINDOR!"

I cheered with the rest of my table. I loved it when the first person to be Sorted was in my house. It made such a nice difference.

As none of the next few students were in Gryffindor, my mind began to wander. Where was Rose? Violetta would probably have had to stay on the Hospital Wing for the night, but Rose should have been back ages ago.

"Zucchi, Aidan!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

As the last person made his way to the Ravenclaw table, I saw Rose come in.

"What took you so long?," I asked her as soon as she sat down. She rolled her eyes.

"Nothing really," she said, "I just met someone along the way."

"Who?," I demanded.

"Oh, just some random Huffle-"

I gave her my that-is-a-stupid-lie-come-on-you-can-tell-me-I'm-your-best-friend look. Rose gave in.

"Scorpius Malfoy," she said. "And please don't tell anyone!," she added quickly as she saw the look of spreading happiness on my face. Rose had fancied him since first year but always got so shy so that she wouldn't talk to him.

"YES! About time too," I said. "Did you kiss?" Rose went very red (I love it when that happens, it looks hilarious).

"N-no," she stammered out reluctantly. "We were about to but Professor Slughorn came and told us to come back here." I could hear the disappointment in her voice. Anyone with half a mind could. I put an arm round her.

"He likes you Rose. Don't worry. I'm sure he'll ask you out soon." Rose smiled at the thought. However, it quickly vanished.

"But Tamara, what if he doesn't? What if he doesn't even like me?"

"Trust me he likes you," I said. "Haven't you noticed him constantly staring at you?" From the look on her face, she hadn't but that was probably because she was too busy staring at him.

"But he'll dump me," Rose said, fear in her voice. "He'll dump me just as he dumps all his other slags."

"That's because he doesn't like them, you likes YOU," I said, slightly exasperated. Rose shook her head, disbelievingly.

"He doesn't," she said. "I'm not like those girls that he takes on dates. Those sluts."

"Hey you two." James came over to us. My heart flipped at the sight of him.

"Have you seen Violetta?," he asked us.

"She had to go to the Hospital Wing," I told him. "She was really sick."

"Oh," he said. He looked disappointed. Violetta really had done a good job flirting with him. Anyone would think they're dating or something.

"Well do you know why she was so sick?," he asked, sitting down. Next to me (I have millions of butterflies in my stomach, we're so close to each other). I shrugged.

"No," I replied. "She just got really sick when we were getting of the carriages. She probably ate something." Rose had been silent throughout our exchange, but now she was looking horrified as realisation dawned on her face.

"Oh no!," she wailed. "She ate the fudge that I shared on the train with her, Hugo must have slipped some Fever Fudge in there! I have to go and tell Madam Pomfrey and tell Violetta I'm sorry!" And with that, she ran out of the Hall.

"Good luck," I muttered. James heard me and let out a snort. Violetta was stubborn as fuck, she would make it out to all be Rose's fault and yell at her. I wanted to follow her but then decided against it. This happened way too often, Rose should have learnt by now that Violetta never really accepted apologies.

I was glad that Rose had left because it gave me a chance to flirt with James. We got into a deep conversation about Quidditch, both of us ranting about the Tornados' last game.

"I never knew you supported the Tornados," James said to me quietly.

"I could say the same about you," I said, smiling at him. I saw him leaning in, as if he wanted to kiss me. I decided to pretend I didn't see, acting oblivious. I didn't want to just be another random girl who he snogged, I wanted him to really like me, to go on a date with me or something before I kissed him. I looked around for a distraction and found one.

"Hey Celesta!," I said, waving to a girl with dirty blonde hair threw into a messy bun. James pulled away from me looking disappointed.

"Hi Tamara," she said coming over to me and James. Celesta Bell was my cousin, the daughter of my mum's brother. She was my only one, since Dad didn't have any siblings and Mum only had a brother and Celesta was an only child. She was a Hufflepuff but she may as well have been a Slytherin or Ravenclaw. She was in my year, and was the best in the year at Astronomy (I know no one really talks about it much but it's much harder than you think trying to remember all of Jupiter's moons) and she also took Arithmancy, said to be the hardest subject at Hogwarts. Rose took it too with Violetta. I didn't. I picked Care of Magical Creatures and Ancient Runes. Anyway, Celesta was very cunning. Like when some bitch came and stole her boyfriend, she spent 6 months planning revenge but one day, the bitch came running to the Hospital Wing with half her hair

gone and boils all over her face. It was awesome.

"So who is this?," James asked me.

"Oh, this is my cousin, Celesta Bell," I said. "Celesta, well you know who this is." As the children of the Wizarding World Saviours, everyone knew who you were.

"James Sirius Potter," Celesta extended her hand and James shook it.

"It's nice to meet you," he said.

"I'm gonna head back to my Common Room," Celesta said. "I'll see you around?"

"Yeah," James said, grinning, "See you, bye." Celesta smiled and walked off. Well it looks like I have someone else to compete with for James. First my best friend and now my COUSIN?

James looked at me. "Shall we head back then?," he said to me.

"Yeah, let's go then." We walked out of the Great Hall. I felt someone shove me with a great amount of force, knocking me to the ground.

"Watch it!," a familiar voice said. A voice that I had heard just a few hours ago. I looked up and saw Mattheo Flint looking at me.

"You will pay for what happened on the train," he said menacingly. "And that's a promise." He gave me a kick in the ribs (it hurt like hell too) and walked off.

James offered me his hand. I took it and he pulled me up. I brushed the mud Mattheo's shoe had left on my robes off.

"You okay?," James asked me.

"I'm fine," I said, wincing as I put my hand to my ribs.

"Are you sure?," he asked, genuinely concerned.

"I'll be okay," I said. James put his arm around me. Holy shit. I hope he didn't feel my stomach exploding.

"Let's get to the Common Room then," he said.

I smiled. If this was going to be a competition to get James, it looked like I was winning. So far.

A/N: Hey! I'm sorry I haven't updated for a while. This is quite a long chapter. Hopefully the chapter will be coming quickly :) So do you think Tamara and James will make a good couple? What do you think of Celesta? PLEASE REVIEW! :)


	5. Chapter 5: Ending A Friendship

Chapter 5: Ending a Friendship

"Rose, what's wrong?," I asked though I think I knew the answer. She had just come back to the dorm, crying. Rose shook her head and lay down on her bed.

"Rose," I said softly. "Was it Violetta?" Rose sat up to face me and nodded, her eyes red and puffy.

"She said...awful things to me," Rose sniffed, more tears sliding down her cheeks. "She said that it was all my fault and I should have known it was Fever Fudge and that she didn't want anything else to do with me." I was shocked. Rose had been Violetta's best friend since first year and she always meant what she said.

I used to have a friend called Samuel Parkinson who was 2 years older than me. I know what you're thinking. Parkinson. Pansy Parkinson. And Pansy was nothing but a horrible bitch. But Samuel wasn't like that. He was incredibly caring and was the commentator for Quidditch matches. But then, in fourth year, his parents decided for him to switch to Durmstrang. Violetta was also his friend but when she heard, she had a huge argument with Samuel. She said that she thought he was her friend and how could he betray them and go to DURMSTRANG of all places and that he was going to live in "enemy territory."

Violetta really took things far too seriously. And because of that, she hurt people's feelings which is why she didn't have many friends.

"What else did she say?," I asked her. I was already ready to explode at Violetta but knowing her, that hadn't even been the worst.

"She said-she called me a fucking bitch and said I was a stupid arse and that it's no wonder Scorpius didn't like me because...I was stupid and mean to everyone and they all hated me," Rose said, sobbing again. I didn't say anything, I put my arm round her as she cried, vowing to wreck Violetta. A series of pranks from me and major yelling from Rose should do the trick.

The next morning when Rose and I entered the Great Hall, Violetta was already there. Flirting with James. I guess I would just have to get used to it. Rose stiffened at the sight of her. Seeing this made me angry and I stomped over to where she was sitting. Violetta looked up, when she saw it was us a slight look of panic came on to her face.

"What?," she asked us, trying to be light hearted.

"You know what," I shot back. "How could you say stuff like that to Rose? You know Rose is sensitive about people calling her stupid, and the whole thing was just a mistake!"

"Well she was a bit stupid," Violetta said, ignoring the warnings of an explosive argument. "She should have known it was Fever Fudge and besides-"

"Did you know it was Fever Fudge?," I cut her off.

"Of course!," she said defiantly.

"No you did not!," I said, close to yelling now. "You're a liar, and a fucking bad one too. If you knew, you would most definitely not have eaten it! Rose just offered it to you, you were just such a greedy pig and probably ate so many that you stumbled across one! I bet you there were only about 2 Fever Fudges in the whole packet!" Violetta was silent.

"And," I continued, "Why did you say you wanted nothing more to do with Rose?! She's your best friend! You don't just end things with her just because she accidentally gave you Fever Fudge!"

"You do realise how weird that sounded right?," Violetta said. Rose, who had been standing behind me silently the entire time, kicked her. Violetta winced. She might be mentally strong but physically, she wasn't.

"Shut your mouth," Rose snapped at Violetta.

"So are you going to give Rose another chance or not?," I asked her.

"No," Violetta said. Rose looked like she had been slapped in the face, tears were forming in her eyes. I looked at Violetta with disgust and anger.

"Fine then," I said to Violetta. "But I'm with Rose because I don't think it was her fault. You don't want to be friends with a bitch like that anyway," I added to Rose and then to Violetta I said "I don't even know why I was friends with you in the first place. Merlin knows you don't have a single good personality trait."

"Tamara...," Violetta began but I had already walked off, Rose right next to me. She looked like she was fighting back tears. I would be lying if I said my eyes were dry. I looked back at Violetta and saw that she already had tears sliding down her face and that she was making no effort to wipe them off or stop them. James went over to her and put his arm round her. I felt my eyes burn at the sight and ran up to my dorm where I lay face down on the bad and let the tears flow.

Over the next few days, Violetta, true to her word, had nothing more to do with me or Rose. If she had to sit with us because she was late, she mainly kept to herself and didn't speak to either of us. Rose kept asking me if she could just apologize but I wouldn't let her. She was in the wrong, not Rose. It pained me because I longed to be on speaking terms with Violetta again. I knew that I had already forgiven her deep down, but I wanted her to apologize to. She was just too proud to do so.

"Tamara," Rose said to me. We were heading back to the Common Room and it was just after dinner. It had been a bad day for homework and I wanted to get started on the Charms essay Professor Flitwick had set us.

"Tamara listen to me," Rose said. Fuck. She usually only said that if it was something important.

"What?," I said impatiently.

"You know the Hogsmeade trip this weekend?," Rose asked me. Of course I knew. I had been hoping for a certain James Potter to ask me, especially since we talked to each other a lot more now and he seemed quite into me.

"James is going with your cousin," Rose said. My cousin?! James was going with my cousin?!

"Are you fucking kidding me?," I said. "James Potter, your cousin, going on a date with my cousin?! Why?! When did this happen?! I am going to FUCKING KILL Celesta-"

"No you will most definitely not!," Rose yelled at me. "It's ONE DATE Tamara! James might not even like her! Merlin's sake Tamara, let the poor girl live." I sulked.

"Fine," I grumbled. We had reached the Fat Lady.

"Moonstone," I snapped at her. She looked taken aback.

"Mind your temper, young lady," she said snootily. I gave her the finger. We both ran in, as the Fat Lady shouted "The Headmistress will hear about this!" I ignored her and stomped up to my dormitory. Rose came in a few seconds later.

"He does like you, you know," she said, sitting on my bed.

"Who?," I asked, trying to push my hopes down in case she wasn't talking about who I thought she was.

"James, you idiot," Rose said. "He likes you, far more than he likes Celesta." Happiness welled up inside me. But it soon disappeared as a thought crossed my mind.

"He doesn't," I said, shaking my head. "If he did, he would have asked me to Hogsmeade. You're just saying it to make me feel better."

"But he does!," Rose persisted, obviously frustrated that I didn't understand. "You can tell just by the way he talks to you! He's just afraid!"

"Afraid of what?," I asked her. "Rose, I'm telling you, he doesn't like me. I got up from my bed. "I'm going to have a shower." I shut the door to the bathroom, leaving Rose.

James' POV

"James, have you finished eating yet?," Dominique asked me. We were eating lunch in the Great Hall.

"No," I said, reaching out for another treacle tart. Dom batted my hand away from them and pulled me up and towards the doors.

"Hey! What are you doing? I haven't finished yet!," I protested.

"Albus, Louis and Fred have all gone and I would rather not have you throw up because you are 5 treacle tarts," Dom said.

"I didn't," I said. I saw Celesta Bell in front of me, also heading out of the Great Hall. I broke out from Dom's grip on my wrist and ran behind her, before jumping on her. She screamed.

"Hi," I said to her.

"James!," she said, slapping me on the arm. "Never do that again! You have me a heart attack!" I smirked.

"You'd better get used to it then," I said, grinning. Celesta laughed. Ever since Tamara introduced us, we had been spending a lot of time together. Mostly because we pretty much took the same classes and I always got her to help me with homework. She was brilliant at Astronomy, a subject I loathed.

"So I'm guessing you need help with something?," Celesta said.

"Yep," I replied. "Can you help me on the Charms essay?"

"The one on Silencing Charms?," she asked. I nodded, knowing what was probably coming, because Rose always responded like this. "But James! That one's due tomorrow! Why didn't you tell me? You can't always leave things till the last minute-" Etcetra etcetra. I didn't bother listening to the rest of her lecture.

"-and why don't you just go to Rose for help on homework? Isn't she just as smart as me, if not more?," Celesta finished.

"Well," I said, grinning cheekily, "I don't spend as much time with you do I?" She blushed, going pink.

"Oh..um..well I guess we should...erm, like...um...get started on the essay," she stammered out. So she liked me. I like her too, she had a wicked sense of humor and brains that rivaled Rose, but I kind of liked her more as a friend.

"Yeah," I said. "Should we go to my Common Room?"

"Why don't we go out by the lake? It's a really nice day," Celesta said. We walked outside and sat down by a tree. I got out some parchment and a quill from my bag. Celesta took out a piece of parchment with what looked like 4 feet of writing on it.

"You know we were only supposed to do 3 feet right?," I asked her.

"Yes but I found some really interesting information so I put that in the essay too," she said. She waved to someone. "Hi Rose!" Rose came over to us.

"James! This essay is due to tomorrow! You can't-"

"Don't start," I cut her off. Rose sighed and started reading...The Standard Book of Spells? Who reads that in their free time?...by a nearby tree. Well at least we have privacy. I dipped my quill in ink and started writing.

"James, you can't copy of my work! How will you learn?"

I worked on my essay for the rest of lunch, managing to get it finished. I was glad that I had a free period after this, writing essays you barely understood is very exhausting. I packed my things and got up.

"James, are you going to the Hogsmeade trip this weekend?," Celesta asked me.

"Of course," I said, "Who doesn't?"

"Never mind," Celesta said quickly. "Anyway, I said I would meet someone, I'll see you later, bye." She practically ran away then. It then became clear to me what Celesta had wanted.

"Hey!," I shouted, running to catch up with her. She turned around.

"Yes?"

"Do you want to go to Hogsmeade with me this weekend?," I asked her. She broke out into a huge grin and jumped forward and hugged me. I was a little surprised but hugged her back. We are friends after all. Friends hug each other.

"Yes I will," she said as she broke away from me. "I'll see you." She smiled and walked towards the Hufflepuff Common Room. I watched her, smiling.

"James?" I heard a voice behind me. I turned around and saw Rose standing there. Shit. She must have heard everything.

"Rose, hi," I said awkwardly. She narrowed her eyes.

"Why would you do that?," she asked me. I knew where this was going. Bad.

"Because I like her!," I said defensively.

"Like like her?," she asked me. I was silent. I couldn't say yes because she would know I'm lying and I couldn't say no because then she would probably yell at me for asking Celesta out when I didn't have feelings for her. Rose took my silence as a no.

"If you don't even have feelings for her, why would you take her on a date?!," Rose yelled at me. At least this corridor was empty. "Why do I always have to go through this with you? James, you can't just dump her afterwards, girls have feelings too! Probably more than boys! You can't treat them like that! I wish you didn't have to alway have a different date to Hogsmeade. And one more thing, why do you never take girls from Gryffindor? The only girls you take are stupid slags from Ravenclaw and Slytherin, I don't even know how thy got there! You might want to improve your taste in girls! Those types have probably snogged every boy in the year! And more!" Rose paused, taking a breath.

"Celesta's a Hufflepuff," I said after an awkward silence. I really couldn't think of anything else to say. Most people would crack up at that but not Rose, because Rose is not a normal human.

"I know she is," she snapped. "I'm just saying that you should go on a date with someone you actually have feelings for. Or the beginnings of feelings for." I didn't say anything because I knew she was right.

"James, come on, I know you like her," she said to me. Oh no. Was it really that obvious? I hadn't told anyone, not even Fred (Weasley, it gets really confusing because I'm actually quite good friends with Fred Wood as well, even though his name is actually Frederick). I decided to play it dumb.

"Who?," I said.

"Who do you think?," Rose asked me with a raised eyebrow.

"Celesta?"

"You're terrible at this." Whatever "this" was.

"I'm talking about Tamara," Rose said, like I was stupid. Well I'm not. I was just playing stupid.

"Tamara Wood? Fred's little sister?"

"How many Tamaras do we know?"

"Okay fine, whatever," I said. "But I don't like her."

"I have Veritaserum in my cupboard." She must be joking. Who does that?

"I'm not joking." Believable, I suppose. Rose was really good at Potions and I knew for a fact that she kept a stock of potions including The Draught Of Living Death and Polyjuice Potion in her cupboard. Sixth years hadn't even learned to brew the Draught Of Living Death yet. I sighed.

"I guess I like her a little bit," I said.

"Only a little bit?," Rose teased. I slapped her arm.

"Hey," she said, rubbing her arm. "That hurt, James!"

"You girls are so sensitive," I joked. Rose fake glared at me.

"Well I'm a girl, whether you like it or not so you'll just have to deal with my "sensitivity"." I laughed with Rose.

"Tamara will hear about this date with Celesta," Rose said, becoming serious.

"You can't!," I said horrified. I was pretty sure Tamara liked me and she would really hate it if she found out I was going on a date with her cousin. She would kill me and she would kill Celesta and she would be upset. And I didn't want that.

"Why?," Rose asked me. "It's not like you care what she thinks. You only like her a little bit." She smirked at me, knowing she had won. I hate her brain. Correction: I hate her logic. My grades would be at an P of it weren't for her brain. If only they had grades for Quidditch. I'd has an O and she would have a T. That would be hilarious. But moving on.

"Rose, don't tell her," I begged.

"No promises. You should had thought twice before asking Celesta out." She went down the stairs to her lesson. I could only hope she wouldn't tell Tamara. But judging by the way Tamara stomped upstairs to her dorm that night, I assumed Rose had told her. I wondered what breakfast tomorrow would be like. She wouldn't be mad at me, would she? I hope not. Dealing with her temper would mean being hexed. She's famous at Hogwarts for her Stunning Spells.

A/N: Yay! This chapter was updated quite quickly. I've already got the next chapter written so I'll just upload it. I'm really sorry about the crappy ending, helpful reviews or any reviews are always welcome! ;) So what did you think of it? Do you think Violetta should apologise? Did you like James' POV? PLEASE REVIEW :3


	6. Chapter 6: Dates and Partners

Tamara's POV

I woke up feeling bright and happy. Only one more day and then it will be be the weekend, I thought. Something fun was happening this weekend but I couldn't remember what it was. Was it a Quidditch match? No, James would have told us. Have I mentioned before that he's Captain? Well he is. Were we having Apparition lessons? I couldn't wait to do it. But I think McGonagall said it was going to be next term. What was it? I really couldn't remember.

"Is there anything on this weekend?," I asked Ariadne, who had just come out of the bathroom.

"Well there's the Hogsmeade trip isn't there?," she said, getting dressed. I got out of bed and started doing so too. How could I forget? James was taking my cousin, MY OWN FUCKING COUSIN, on a date there. Man, my life is depressing.

"Are you okay?," Ariadne asked me, now fully dressed.

"I'm fine," I said, shortly. I saw her hovering by the door a little uncertainly. "It's okay, you can go on," I told her. I wanted her to stay, Rose and Violetta had already gone down to breakfast, but I had woken up late-it wasn't my fault! My alarm didn't go off!-and unless Ariadne wanted to skip breakfast, she would be late for class as well because it started in 10 minutes.

"Are you sure?," she asked me.

"Yes, you go on, I think they have pancakes today." She smiled at that.

"Okay." Ariadne went out, leaving me alone. It was thinking time now. Yay.

I went over to Rose's mirror. My face was it's usual morning pale. I had decided I didn't want to wear make up because it was horribly uncomfortable. But because I hadn't, you could see a few spots on my face. I sighed. My hair was a mess too. I mean, everyone's hair is bad in the morning but mine was just terrible. It went all straggly and so puffed up I had to dump tons of water to flatten it out. I decided not to do that today. I got my brush and attempted to brush my hair out. It didn't work. The brush got stuck in my hair. Fuck it.

I yanked it out and because I was feeling angry and frustrated at the whole Hogsmeade thing, I threw it across the room. Where there was an open window. FUCK IT.

Not bothered to accio it back, I went out of the room. I didn't know why I was so angry about this whole thing. James had every right to go with whoever he liked. It was just I think he had hooked up with nearly every single girl in the year. The exceptions were me, Violetta, Ariadne and Rose. The Gryffindor girls. Why? He can hook up with Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws, Slytherins even, but can he hook up with a girl in his own house? No. And I don't know why. Because the things boys do usually have an obvious reason. Well not for James. Who does he even like? Celesta, Violetta or me? I so wanted it to be me, but with the way things were going, I guess it wasn't me. I suppose it's pretty obvious that it's Celesta, because he's going on a date with her, but a tiny part of me still hoped that she would just be one of his one-date-only girls. But I didn't want that to happen to Celesta. She didn't deserve it. She would end up crying and I would get angry and curse James and then he would hate me.

The bell rang.

I checked my timetable. Potions was next. Brilliant. I hated Potions. At least Slughorn was easy on us, but I hated how he had obvious favourites who got invited to his own Christmas Party and all that other stuff. Besides that, I hated all the weird and horrible ingredients you had to add. Beetle powder? Lacewing flies? No thanks. And it was far too complicated for my taste as well. All those stirs anti-clockwise and clockwise and the specific way you had to prepare the ingredients. I hated it, though I was actually not bad at it. I had managed to get an E for my O.W.L.

I entered the Potions dungeons. I was one of the few people there. Rose came in a couple of minutes later. I patted the seat next to me that I had saved for her. She smiled at me and sat down.

"Hey," she said. "I didn't see you at breakfast." I half glared at her.

"Because someone didn't bother to wake me up and I didn't have time."

"Sorry," she said, grinning. "You would have murdered me if I woke you up." Slughorn came in at that moment.

"Hello class!," he said, beaming at us. "This term, we will be making a series of potions that you are required to make in sixth and seventh year. I'm going to put you into partners because I think some of you are not working to your best standard when you are working with certain people." I think that last part was directed at me. Yes, I worked with Rose, who was amazing at Potions, but we always ended up talking about who knows what and I would look at my potion to find that it had turned a colour I didn't even know existed. Literally. There was a Potions lesson once where I was really happy because my potion had turned a bright gold but then I had looked around the room and saw that everyone else's was black. That had resulted in Slughorn saying to me "I'm disappointed in you, Wood." But he always says that to me anyway.

"-So everybody stand up please and I will assign you with you your partner!," Slughorn was saying. Everyone got up and lined up against the wall. Rose was standing next to me. I hoped we would be together.

"Miss Weasley and Mr Malfoy!"

"Which Miss Weasley?," I asked. Dominique, Lucy, Rose and Roxanne were all Miss Weasleys. Lucy Weasley is a seventh year. She is the daughter of Percy Weasley and Audrey Weasley and is a Ravenclaw. Roxanne is in sixth year like me. She's a Gryffindor and the daughter of George Weasley and Angelina Weasley.

"Rose Weasley," Slughorn replied.

Fuck.

Rose and Scorpius Malfoy and sat down, not looking at each other and being very awkward. If I couldn't be with Rose, maybe I could be with Violetta and fix things with her. Or I could be with James. YES. That would be awesome. And I could flirt with him and get him to like me.

"Violetta Smith with James Potter!"

Shit.

Merlin must really hate me. Who am I supposed to go with?!

"Tamara Wood and Albus Potter!"

Oh well. I guess Albus isn't too bad. He's quite nice actually. He's a Gryffindor like me and also in sixth year. I see him quite a lot since he's Rose's cousin but he doesn't really talk to me. It could have been worse. I could have got Mattheo Flint, who still hadn't done anything to me. It was making me nervous, because I could tell he had meant it when he had threatened me.

I sat down next to Albus and waited for Slughorn to assign the rest of the students. Albus and I looked at each other at the same time and I felt my face go red. Fuck. Why am I going red? I only go red when I'm embarrassed! Albus never made me embarrassed before! Maybe I was feeling things that weren't actually happening and I wasn't red at all.

"Your face is red," Albus said to me, smirking. I glared at him. It wasn't my fault my body was having weird reactions. Even James never made me go red, as he was my crush. He IS my crush.

Albus groaned. "We had to do the Draught of Peace first. It's so hard. I hate Potions." Well at least my partner shares my hate for the subject. I breathed out.

"Well then, we'd better get cracking then hadn't we?," I said, trying to lighten things up. "You go get the ingredients, I'll...um...read through the recipe so we know what we're doing." Albus snorted. I pushed him out of his chair. He rolled his eyes and went over to the store cupboard. I didn't bother reading the recipe after I found it.

"Well well well," a voice said behind me. I turned around to see Mattheo Flint in front of me. Oh shit, not this again.

"Fuck off," I said.

"Language," he said, an evil glint in his eye.

"What do you want," I asked rudely. "Aren't you supposed to be working?"

"Aren't you?," he retorted.

"My partner's still getting ingredients. Yours," I poked him. "Has already got everything and you should be helping her." I nodded towards where he was sitting. Amanda Boot, a sixth year Ravenclaw, was there, weighing out the ingredients.

"She won't notice if I have a little chat with you," Flint said. "So, I noticed that you and Potter were quite friendly over there. What exactly-"

"Mr Flint, aren't you supposed to be working with Miss Boot, who is on the opposite side of the room?" Slughorn came up to us.

"I suggest you both stop your little conversation and get started on the Draught Of Peace." I nodded.

"We're sorry, Professor," Flint said.

"That's alright," Slughorn said.

Albus sat down at our table, dumping the ingredients down.

Slughorn went over to see Rose and Scorpius' potions, which were already bubbling and steaming. Flint threw a death glare at me and went back to his table.

"Let's get started then," Albus said, a little awkwardly.

"Yeah," I said, my eyes on Violetta and James, who were working on their potions while chatting together animatedly.

We worked on our potions almost silently the whole lesson, only talking to give each other advice or correct each other. Albus did most of the correcting and I have most of the above which was nearly always wrong. But Albus was actually not bad at Potions and because he was helping him, Slughorn was quite happy with both of us.

"Well done, you two," he said, when he came round. "Alright, that's the end of this lesson. Pack up everyone, class dismissed." I packed extra quickly, not even waiting for Rose. I could see Mattheo trying o push through everyone to get to me and I really didn't want to deal with him now. That git.

It was double Charms next, which Violetta didn't have. I would get to sit with James. And Rose. I realized that Albus was also in my Charms class. I had never sat next to him before. You'd think that he would sit with Rose because she's his cousin, James did. But then again, I rarely say next to Celesta.

I was the first person to arrive in the classroom, because I had been speed walking. I sat at a table and put my bag on the desk next to me. A Hufflepuff came in and pulled the chair of the deal next to me out.

"Sorry," I said, my hands on my bag. "This seat's taken." The Hufflepuff looked at me, hurt, and went and sat on the opposite side of the room. I saw Albus coming in but didn't pay much attention to him.

"Can I sit here?," Albus asked me. I looked back at him, shocked and not sure what to say. I really didn't want to hurt him, the Hufflepuff was different because I didn't really know her anyway. But then I couldn't sit with either Rose or James. Maybe I could sit with James and Rose could sit...somewhere else. I could sit with her next lesson anyway.

"Yeah sure," I said, removing my bag from the desk. Albus grinned at me and sat down. I planned for James to sit on the other desk next to me. However, Rose came in first and assumed that she could sit there and I really didn't want to make her hurt and pick her cousin over her, even if I had a massive crush on him.

"Where's James going to sit?," she asked, a confused look on her face when she saw Albus siting at the desk next to me.

"Was James going to sit here?," Albus asked me. I flushed.

"Oh, um, no, it's okay, you can sit here," I stammered. I guess we had Charms again next Tuesday. I'll sit with James then.

James decided to walk in at that moment, immediately heading over to me. He froze when he saw Albus sitting in his place.

"Albus, what are you doing here?," he said. Jeez, James, you don't need to sound so pissed off. Go sit with your girlfriend Violetta. Oh wait, she doesn't do Charms. Okay, go sit with Celesta. She's your date for Hogsmeade.

"What am I doing here?," Albus said, sounding equally pissed. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm in your Charms class and I have been since last year."

"Yes, but why are you sitting here?," James asked him impatiently.

"Because I want to," Albus answered simply. "And Tamara let me." Hey, why is he dragging me into this?! And I haven't done anything wrong, why's James glaring at me?!

"I'm sorry!," I said defensively, "But you came late and Albus came first and asked to sit here and I didn't want to hurt him so I said yes and I planned for you to sit where Rose was sitting but then she came and sat down and I didn't want to hurt her either so I let her sit there and you can still sit next to Rose."

"You were going to just let James sit here and dump me?," Rose asked me, her voice filled with anger and hurt.

Oh God.

No.

Fuck.

Why did I say that?

This will not end well.

"No!," I said exasperated and slightly panicked that we might be having a fight. "I wasn't going to dump you! It's just that James only sits with us during Charms but I figured that you could still sit with me next lesson and anyway, I really don't think you should be mad at me because you're still sitting there whereas James doesn't have a place to sit now!" I took a deep breath. James, Rose and Albus all looked at me.

"I'm sorry," Albus said quietly, "I didn't know. Do you want me to leave?" I shook my head. Strangely, I liked his presence and I wanted him to stay and sit next to me. James sighed.

"I'll go sit with Rose," he said, sounding down-hearted.

"No, you swap seats with me, you can sit with Tamara," Rose said angrily, "Since it's what she wanted in the first place." But it wasn't. And now my best friend wouldn't look at me and James was avoiding my gaze. All because Albus wanted to sit with me. I felt my eyes grow hot. Not a good sign.

"Are you alright?," Albus asked me quietly. I shook my head. I was far from alright but I wasn't mad at Albus. Which was weird because I should be. I think this whole thing was stupid. No one was talking to each other all because of SEATS.

But then I realized what I had made this look like.

I had picked Albus over James.

I had picked James over Rose.

Rose, my best friend.

So really, she had every right to be mad at me.

"Tamara," Albus said. I looked at him. "I know this is probably really not a good time but..." He seemed to be debating something.

"Will you go to Hogsmeade with me this weekend?"

A/N: Tamara just got asked out! I'm so sorry I ended this on a cliffhanger but I couldn't think of a better way to end it. The next chapter should be quick as I already have it nearly finished and all I need I do is to upload it. Tell me what you thought! PLEASE REVIEW :3


	7. Chapter 7: Hogsmeade

I stared at Albus, who was becoming increasingly nervous, unable to believe that I got asked out. Why would he ask me out though? Did he like me?

I didn't know what to say. Should I say yes? The one person who I wanted to go with was going with my cousin, so I may as well. But what about Rose? I usually spent Hogsmeade trips with her (Violetta would always be with Mattheo, snogging like they would die if they stopped, something no one really wanted to watch) but she currently wasn't on speaking terms with me. I was going to look like a sad loser if I went into Hogsmeade by myself, so why not just say yes?

I smiled at Albus.

"I'll go with you," I said. He broke out into a huge grin, obviously really happy that I had agreed.

"We can meet in the Common Room at 11 tomorrow," he said.

"Ok, but-" I wanted to ask him about Rose. She would have to spend Her day in Hogsmeade by herself. She could just not go but I knew for a fact that her uncle George had just opened a new Weasley's Wizard Wheezes shop in Hogsmeade and she would want to go and see him. Another option was to just make up with Violetta and go with her. I didn't know what Rose would want.

"Miss Wood and Mr Potter, please stop talking and pay attention," Professor Flitwick, who I hadn't noticed coming in, said. "Now, the Silencing Charm is-" and he droned on. I didn't pay attention.

I looked at Rose. She must have felt my stare because she turned around, her face full of anger. She looked at me before breaking eye contact. I just hoped she would come round.

"Now everyone have a go at Silencing these chickens."

A chicken appeared on every students desk and they all started squawking. The noise was deafening.

"Silencio!," I said, swishing my wand. The chicken looked at me, confused, before squawking again.

"I think you're supposed to move your wand like this," I heard James say, as he demonstrated. I copied his movement.

"Silencio!," I said again. The chicken became a lot quieter but it was still making sound.

"Put the emphasis on the "len" part," Albus said to me. His chicken was already silent, though its beak was still moving.

"Silencio!," I said for the third time. This time, my chicken fell silent and no noise came out of it's beak even though it was moving.

"Well done, Miss Wood!," Professor Flitwick called to me from across the room. I beamed, feeling very satisfied.

"Ariadne, I don't know what to wear!"

It was Saturday, the day of the Hogsmeade trip. Where I would go on a date with Albus. I was freaking out. Ariadne was with me because my two ex-best friends/ roommates weren't speaking to me.

"Calm down, 'Mara," Ariadne said. "Why don't you just wear your usual jeans and T-shirt, I don't get why you're so fussed about looking good, it's not like you like him." She smirked at me. I glared at her.

"He's still my date and I like to look good for my dates," I said.

"Like you have so much experience dating," she muttered as she looked through my wardrobe.

If she wasn't being sarcastic, it wouldn't be true. I know. I'm a sad person. I'm 16 and I've never even been asked out, let alone have a boyfriend. Boys must really hate me. Just don't judge.

"Here, wear this," Ariadne said, laying out the outfit she had picked for me on the bed. I stared at it. It was a very low cut pink top which I didn't think would be able to cover all of my belly, and a pair of black skinny jeans, my ankle high leather boots which I hated but I had gotten for Christmas, and a dark blue cardigan.

"Ariadne," I said to her, "You're a really great friend and this outfit is amazing but it would look really wrong on me. It would look great on you because you're beautiful but on me, I would look weird." I looked through the outfit.

"The skinny jeans are quite good so I think I'll wear them but the rest would look weird, especially the top," I said, putting the clothes I didn't want back in my wardrobe. Ariadne came over and helped me.

"I suppose the cardigan is too cold to wear anyway," Ariadne said, looking through all my clothes again. "What about these?" She showed me a red T-shirt and a blue hoodie.

"Okay."

"Tamara, hurry up, it's 10:50! You're going to be late!," Ariadne yelled at me from outside. I was in the bathroom, trying to fix my hair, which was all tangled and a downright mess.

"Wait a second! I'm just doing my hair!"

"Use your wand! All you have is a brush, how are you supposed to fix that nest on your head? Merlin, girl, have you gone stupid?!"

And the truth would be no, because I probably went stupid a long time ago.

I pulled out my wand and used it to untangle and straighten my hair, so it was soft brown and silky, then I quickly put it into a French plait.

I looked at myself in the mirror and decided I didn't look too bad.

"Hey," Albus greeted me when I went down to the Common Room.

"Hi Albus." I smiled at him. He looked good, but not like he had tried too hard, which is probably what I looked like. Well at least he would appreciate the effort I put into looking good for him. I wasn't even wearing any make up, except a tiny bit of foundation. I hate make up. It itches and you can't rub your eyes or anything or it will smudge and look horrible. And if you wear lipstick, you can't eat because the lipstick will run onto your food and lipstick tastes gross. I can tell you that firsthand.

"Shall we go?," Albus asked me.

"Come on," I said, linking my arm with his as we walked out of the Portrait.

The whole way to Hogsmeade, we talked together, and laughed as we found out things about each other and that we were actually quite similar.

Albus and I were both the middle child, except Albus was the favourite and I wasn't. Which is sad. He also supported the Tornados like me and wanted to be an international Quidditch player after Hogwarts. He probably could. He was really good, playing Seeker for our team. I also wanted to be a Quidditch player after I graduated from Hogwarts. I wanted to play for the Holyhead Harpies, maybe even become Captain.

And so, we ended up talking about Quidditch, because Quidditch is fabulous and everyone likes it. Except Rose. But she'll probably have to when she starts dating Scorpius because he plays Keeper for the Slytherin team. Yes, I have no doubt that they will end up dating. By Christmas. And if they don't, I will kick and scream like a little girl who doesn't get what she wants and force them to.

So then we started talking about Rose and Scorpius, and how Rose really just needs to get her shit together and talk to him and flirt with him, otherwise he would continue to not know if her existence. Unless he liked her too, because that seems to happen to all of my friends. A girl likes a boy and then they find out that the boy likes them back and they kiss and then start dating and be happy. I wish I could say that happened to me too. But the love of my life is currently dating my cousin so no. Disappointment.

"So where do you want to go?," Albus asked me. I looked up, startled to find that we had arrived in the Village.

"The Three Broomsticks," I replied. "It's really warm in there and I'm starving." Albus grinned at me.

"Shouldn't girls like you be on a diet?" I hit his arm.

"No," I said, horrified at the thought of not being able to eat any Pumpkin Pasties. "I'm not fat, so I really don't need to be."

"Are you sure about that?," Albus joked. I hit his arm again.

"Hey!," he said, "Stop slapping my arm! What did I do?"

"You're being annoying."

He raised his eyebrows at that. I felt myself going red (again, why does this keep happening to me when I'm with Albus?!). To hide my face, I quickly stepped inside the warm pub.

"I'll go get seats," I told Albus. I went over to an empty table but something caught my eye.

Rose was sitting at a table. With Scorpius Malfoy. On a date (presumably). Half of me was feeling happy and excited because they were going on a date and then they could become boyfriend and girlfriend and then get married. Which was exciting. But the other half of me was feeling sad and angry because Rose hadn't even decided to tell me. All because of a tiny little thing that didn't even really matter. It's not like I was even dumping her when I saved the seat for James.

Albus came over with our drinks and noticed me looking at Rose and Scorpius.

"Didn't you know?," Albus asked me. Wow. So tactful. How come he got to know? And I didn't? I'm her best friend! And, fine, maybe I should've given priority for seats to Rose, because she's my best friend, and not my crush/her cousin, but still! I just didn't want to hurt Albus! Why was she taking it so seriously?

I shook my head.

"She didn't tell me," I said. "She isn't even speaking to me at the moment. But how come you got to know?" I tried to just make my voice sound curious, rather than hurt and angry and just very emotional overall.

"Well, the thing is...," Albus said. Oh God. This is going to be bad. "You're kind of the only person she's mad at."

"Figured," I said, coldly. "Kind of?"

"Okay, not kind of, you're the only person she's mad at. Like, 100%. Only you."

I let out a breath that I hadn't realised I had been holding. I should apologise to her. Then, we would be friends again. But what did I apologise for? What would I say? "Hey, Rose, I'm really sorry that I didn't tell you you were sitting in James' seat?" Or "I'm sorry that I didn't plan to sit with you because I didn't want to hurt your cousins feelings but ended up hurting you even though you got to sit next to me but you were for some reason mad at me so decided to swap seats with your other cousin who happens to be my crush?"

What the fuck.

That would not work.

So, basically, I can't really apologise to her because I didn't really do anything wrong.

"You should apologise to her," Albus told me. I put my head in my hands. This was all such a mess. And was James speaking to me at the moment? I wanted to know.

"Is James mad at me?," I asked. I hadn't really seen him since yesterday so I wasn't sure but I think he might have been avoiding me.

"Yes," Albus replied. "Because you prioritised him over Rose."

"That's stupid!," I cried. "I never prioritised anyone over anyone! And even if I did, he shouldn't be mad because Rose is my best friend and he's just..." I tried to think of something that wouldn't give away the fact that I had a massive crush on him.

"He's just a guy who you have a massive crush on and who sits next to you in Charms," Albus said, his voice expressionless.

"Exactly!," I said. I took a sip of my Butterbeer. And then I realised what I said and almost choked.

"No!," I said, as soon as I could talk again. "I don't have a crush on him."

"And I don't have black hair," Albus retorted. I glared at him.

"Maybe you don't have black hair," I said, logically. "Technically, the colour black doesn't exist, it's just very dark brown, so you have brown hair and I dot have a crush on James. BOOM." Albus rolled his eyes.

"It's pretty obvious, don't deny it."

"Hey! It's not that obvious!," I said. Well maybe it was. I stared at him to much. But honestly, don't people have better things to do than observe students to see how many girls have a crush on James Sirius Potter? Because that's just sad. Like, really sad sad.

"It is really obvious, 'Mara."

"No it's not!"

"Yes it is."

"Is not."

"Is too."

"Is not! And if I liked him, I would be on a date with him instead and not on a date with you!," I said.

Oh fuck.

Why did I say that?

"Implying that you actually like me?," Albus asked me, smirking.

"Okay, just no, that doesn't work. I just don't like anyone, okay?"

Albus shook his head disbelievingly.

"Whatever you say."

"Let's go to Honeydukes," I said, trying to change the subject.

An hour and a half later, Albus and I came out of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, as that was the last shop we had visited. We were making our way back to the castle, laden with fake wands and Chocolate Frogs.

"So how do you think this date went?," Albus asked me.

"It was fun, I liked it," I said. And it was true. I enjoyed being in Albus' company, and he didn't take me to Madam Puddifoot's because he probably already knew that I hated it there.

Albus grinned at me, and put his arm around my waist. Just at his touching me, butterflies swam into my stomach. This never happened with James. Not that he ever really touched me but I wondered if it would happen if he did. There would probably be even more.

I rested my head on his shoulder. What? I was tired! And his shoulder was comfy. Ok, that sounded retarded. But it was. I'll shut up now.

I thought I felt Albus' grip on my waist tighten. Not that I objected. It might have been my imagination.

"Do you want to do this again, sometime?," Albus said, breaking the comfortable silence.

I lifted my head from his shoulder and looked at him. I wasn't thinking about giving him an answer. He probably knew the answer. Yes. Because it had been fun. It was definitely not because I liked him. In that way. Though I now thought of him as a friend. At the moment, he was my only friend.

"Yeah," I answered, leaning in. I have no idea what the fuck I'm doing. Don't ask.

"We can do this again next time we come to Hogsmeade," I said, my voice a whisper.

"Good," Albus whispered back, also leaning in.

And just like that, our lips met.

I should have pushed him off.

But I didn't. It was a slow kiss. It never got the chance to go very deep and I wasn't sure if there was any feeling behind it. Maybe there was. But I couldn't tell because Albus broke away from me not long after.

"I can't do this," he said, running a hand through his hair. I looked at him, confused.

"Look, I'm sorry," he said. "But I snog too many girls. I don't have feelings for most of them. And Rose will be angry at me." Oh. That makes sense. Not. Well that answers the question of whether there were feelings behind the kiss. I sound disappointed. What the fuck is going on.

"Why did you even take me on this date anyway?," I asked him accusingly. Oh that is not a good sign. Tamara, calm down. Don't get angry. "You're implying that you shouldn't have kissed me because you don't have feelings for me but isn't that the same as going on a date? And you said you wanted to do this again! You said! Don't people snog on dates? You, of all people should know that because I have heard Rose yelling at you too many times because you went on a date with some random hook up. So am I just another random hook up? Why did you even take me, why not just take a girl that you actually fucking like instead of-"

"Because I like you!," Albus yelled, interrupting my rant. Wow, and he's not even embarrassed? "I took you on a date because my whole family had told me to just get a move on and ask you out so I did! And look where that's got me!" He took a breath, both of us standing there in silence, taking in what he had said.

He liked me. So he had taken me on this date. And it had ended with us kissing. And then yelling at each other. We really had no idea how to date like normal people. Well I didn't. Albus did. But seriously, what kind of guy breaks away from kissing a girl he's liked for who-knows-how-long?

But if I was being honest, I was sad that he had ended the kiss. I don't know why. And looking at him made me just want to fling myself at him and snog him until the end of time. My mind is so messed up today. Maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and find that I can't stop staring at James again. I realised suddenly that I was staring at Albus in a very creepy way and that I should probably stop or he would think I'm demented. But he was staring at me too.

This time, Albus made the first move, taking a small step towards me. I stepped towards him and he moves his hand around my waist as I wrapped my arms around his neck.

"This is where it's got you," I whispered. I tilted my head up and he bent his down, our lips touching again as we started moving them in time.

And this time, no one broke away.

A/N: Hey! What did you think of this chapter? I'm really sorry about the kiss scenes, I'm terrible at writing them! So Albus and Tamara kissed! Do you think they'll be a good couple? Or do you think James is better? Let me know! PLEASE REVIEW :3


	8. Chapter 8: Angst And Fallouts

"How was your date with James?," I asked Celesta. I was at breakfast, sitting at the Hufflepuff table with my cousin because all my Gryffindor friends hated me. Well, Albus and Ariadne didn't. But still.

"It was okay, I think James was a bit bored," Celesta said carelessly.

"Don't you like James?," I asked, curious.

"Well, yes," Celesta admitted. "But it's kind of complicated because I've only known him for a little while. And he's not the only person I've dated and snogged."

"Did you snog?," I asked, a little surprised. But I guess I shouldn't be.

"Yes," she said, like I was stupid. "It's what you do on dates, 'Mara."

"Are you dating now?," I asked her.

"I just went on a date," Celesta said.

"Yes, but there's a difference between going on a date and dating. If you're dating, you're boyfriend and girlfriend, if you're going on a date, it's might just be once and it's just going out with someone."

That made so much sense.

Maybe they're dating now.

I hope not.

"Well, he asked me out for next Hogsmeade trip too so I guess we'll be dating soon," Celesta said.

Merlin, you just had to have the love of my life date my cousin.

Love you too, Merlin.

Okay, no, I hate you.

No offence.

But you're making my love life crap.

I'm so sad.

"'Mara, you should get to class, the bell just rang," Celesta said.

"Okay then," I said, getting up from the table. "Bye Cel." I was the only one who called her that. Sometimes it was just because I couldn't be bothered to say full name.

I checked my timetable.

I had Charms next. Brilliant. Just brilliant.

I decided to just arrive the latest and sit in where there was a free spot.

I sat down at the Gryffindor table and began to read some dreadful Muggle novel Mum had forced me to read. It was an awful plot, about this little boy who got kicked out of the orphanage because he asked for more food, and it was so old fashioned I couldn't understand a word of it.

"Miss Wood, shouldn't you be in class?," Professor McGonagall came up to me, her lips a tight line.

"Sorry," I said, shoving the book into the bottom of my bag where it would probably never leave, and rushing out.

I entered the Charms classroom. Professor Flitwick wasn't here yet but everyone else was. I looked for the last spot to sit. I could see Rose had made up with Violetta as she was sitting with her and Celesta. Albus had probably not wanted to cause any more trouble and was now sitting with one of his friends, Aaron Thomas.

And James? He was sitting at a table all by himself. And there was an empty seat next to him.

Joy.

I sat down next to him, taking out my books and trying to ignore his presence. I felt a hand on my arm. I turned to look at James.

"I'm sorry," James said to me quietly.

"For what?," I said. That should not have come out as rudely as it was.

"For being mad at you and ignoring you," James said and I could tell he meant it. "You have every right to sit with who you like and it was just a misunderstanding. I know you didn't prioritise anyone over anyone,  
Albus kept trying to tell me but I didn't listen and I'm just sorry. You were just trying to not hurt people's feelings."

"I forgive you," I said, smiling at him.

"Good," James said, "Now will you go to Hogsmeade with me?"

Well James, if you had asked me this 2 weeks ago, I would have been over the moon. But, the thing is, I've already promised someone I'd go with them and I'm pretty sure you have too.

"I thought you were going with Celesta," I said. He looked surprised that I knew.

"James, she's my cousin," I told him.

"Right," he said, "Well then, we'll all go together."

It could not have been clearer that he wanted to ditch Celesta. I wouldn't let that happen to her.

"James," I sighed. "I really want to go with you but I won't let you just ditch Celesta like she's a nobody because she's not. She's your friend. So go with her just for the next trip. I've also said to someone I'll go with them anyway so I'm really sorry but not this time."

He looked crestfallen.

"With who?," he asked.

Don't tell him.

Or there will probably be family war.

"Somebody," I said to him.

"Will you go with me the one after then?," he asked hopefully.

"Yes," I answered.

I WAS GOING ON A DATE WITH JAMES SIRIUS POTTER.

In a month.

We plan ahead too much.

But I was still going with him.

"What were you and James talking about?," Albus asked me, after Charms.

I chewed my lip, wondering whether to tell him or not.

"Nothing," I said.

Saying nothing never works because it's never nothing.

"Tell me," Albus said. "It definitely didn't look like nothing. James looked like he was in heaven when he came out."

Really? I didn't notice.

"Well, he asked me out," I said.

"He asked you out? What did you say?," Albus asked, seeming agitated.

Don't worry, Albus.

I didn't bail on you.

Like why would I even do that.

"I said I was going with you next Hogsmeade but then he asked me out for the one after so I said yes."

"Oh," Albus said. He looked really sad.

"Albus, what's wrong?," I asked him.

He shook his head.

"Nothing," he said.

Bullshit.

I raised my eyebrow at him.

"Because you totally don't look like your family's just died," I said.

"No, I mean seriously!" I looked at him, in shock at his outburst. What was wrong with him?

"Albus, just tell me, please!" I was practically begging by now.

"No, Wood, listen," he said, obviously angry. I was hurt that he had addressed me by my surname. I thought we were friends. Well I obviously thought wrong.

"Forget it, just leave me alone," Albus said.

He takes me on date, says he likes me and now he addresses me by my surname and wants nothing to do with me.

Fuck you, Potter.

"Albus!," I said, catching up with him. Yes, I was mad at him for storming off without an explanation but that didn't mean I wanted him to ignore me like Rose was.

"What's wrong?," I asked, holding his face in my hands so he had to look at me in the eyes.

He looked at me with a pained expression on his face, his eyes avoiding mine. He made eye contact with me for a second and all I could see there was hurt, pain, and betrayal.

Why? Why was he so angry at me? Or hurt?

"Albus, tell me," I whispered.

"Forget it," he whispered back. He pushes himself off me and ran to the Common Room. He had a free period but I had class so I couldn't go to find him.

Or I could skip class.

A tiny part of me, the rule-abiding, logical, Rose-like part of me, said that I shouldn't skip class because it was very important.

Ugh, fuck class, it was History of Magic anyway, Binns wouldn't notice.

I ran to the Common Room, dumping my bag on a nearby sofa, and rushing up the stairs to the boys' dorms.

I entered the sixth year boys' dorm, scanning it for Albus. He wasn't there. But Louis Weasley was.

"Hi," I said, "Have you seen Albus?"

"No," he answered. "He has Quidditch practice."

"Believable," I said, sarcastically. "There's no Quidditch practice today. James cancelled it because of the weather." I pointed outside. It was pouring. Not just normal pouring, but pouring so hard I thought the window was going to break.

"Where is he?," I asked him.

My question was answered a second later when Albus came out of the bathroom.

"Lou, has-" He started to say, but broke off when he saw me there.

My heart did a somersault.

Just by seeing him again and looking him in those vibrant green eyes of his.

Obviously, he didn't want to see me, as he threw a glare at Louis.

Maybe I should go.

Wait, I couldn't go, I had to talk to Albus.

"Albus, I can I talk to you?," I asked him.

"No," Louis said, before Albus could answer. "He's hurt, he doesn't want to talk to you, now back the fuck off."

"It's none of your business," I said angrily. "You're not even letting Albus talk."

"He's my cousin," Louis said, just as angrily. "He told me he didn't want to talk to you, okay?"

"No," I said. "I need to talk to him." I turned to Albus. "You didn't even tell me why you were mad and then you just start avoiding me. What's that supposed to mean? What did I do?"

"Maybe I'm not avoiding you!," Albus said. "Maybe I just haven't had time to be with you!"

"Bullshit!," I yelled. "You're avoiding me and you know it! You just stormed off after Charms and haven't spoken to me since!"

Albus glared at me. I glared back at him. Why couldn't he just say why he was mad at me and we could just fix things?

Albus broke the silence.

"I just don't want to talk to you, alright?," he said. "Can you just leave me alone and stop trying to talk to me?"

That was painful.

I wish he could just tell me why he was mad at me.

It's just the reasonable thing to do.

The reasonable thing to do is to accept that he doesn't want to talk to you and leave him be, I heard Rose saying in my head.

So I did just that.

"I'll go now," I said quietly. I turned the door handle and stepped outside, taking one last look at Albus, who was sitting on his bed looking utterly lost, while Louis talked to him in soft tones I couldn't hear.

I turned to face the front and-

Shit.

Fuck.

You.

Merlin.

Because guess who had found their way into the Common Room.

Clue: It was a Slytherin.

Who I really did not want to see.

Three guesses.

A/N: Cliffhanger! I'm sorry! You might already know who it is. Sorry this chapter is so short and depressing but it is kind of important in the plot of this story. But what did you think of it? Do you want to see what happens next or this chapter again from Albus' POV? I know I've done it from James' POV already but it would be fun to read it from someone else's. Let me know what you think! PLEASE REVIEW :3 


	9. Chapter 9: Slytherin Revenge

It was Flint.

Sometimes, I think he's stalking me.

Merlin, I hate him.

"What are you doing here? How did you get in?," I asked him, dangerously.

"Hey, it's called bribery," he said, lazily. "I gave my ex 2 galleons."

He bribed Violetta into letting him into the Common Room.

Some friends I have.

2 galleons. He must be pretty obsessed with me.

Ugh, that sounded wrong. I meant- like the other obsessed. Not THAT obsessed.

Oh God.

IMAGES.

AGH.

GET OUT OF MY MIND.

Okay, they're gone now.

Inner peace.

I'm so weird.

"And why are you here?," I asked Flint rudely.

That was a stupid question.

Never mind.

"Don't be so aggressive," he said in a mock reprimanding voice. "I think you already know why I'm here."

I drew my wand out.

"You got what you deserved," I hissed at him. "You dumped Violetta. Now stop following me around like a creepy idiot and being a fucking git."

I was ready to hex him into oblivion. But he was prepared. He cast a Shield Charm, and the Body Bind Curse I had sent at him came rocketing back at me. I only managed to dodge it just in time. I saw a flash of red light coming my way. I tried to cast the Shield Charm but I was too slow.

After that, I remember nothing.

Albus' POV

Tamara wasn't sitting at the Gryffindor table for breakfast on Monday morning.

I don't blame her. She literally has zero friends in her own house at the moment. But I was a little upset that she hadn't sat with me. We were practically dating.

I wish.

But she had Corner as well.

I saw Tamara talking with her cousin, Bell, at the Hufflepuff table. What they were talking about I had no idea.

I wanted to wait for her, as we both had Charms after, but she got out a Muggle book and started reading it. I didn't even know she owned a Muggle book.

I decided to go ahead otherwise I would be late for Flitwick. You'd be surprised how grouchy he gets if you're late. Even though he's usually the late one.

Tamara was still reading. I really hope she doesn't turn into Rose. I love Rose but I like Tamara the way she is.

Yes, I like Tamara. In the way you're thinking. I have since I saw her on the train. She wasn't even that good looking. Well she was. In a careless way. But she had this aura about her. It affected you and made you smile and laugh. Because she was such a cheerful person, bursting with confidence and not really self conscience at all. That's why I liked her.

That's why I took her out on the date. Because I knew she liked James but he had got himself a date for Hogsmeade. I thought that she was starting to like me.

Well apparently I was wrong.

I entered the classroom, looking for a place to sit. After all that commotion last lesson that had caused Tamara to lose one of her best friends, it probably wasn't a good idea to sit next to her.

As I sat down next to Aaron, it occurred to me how stupid this whole thing was. They were just seats! Rose was being stupid. I decided I should try and get her to make up with Tamara.

I felt Aaron nudge me.

"What?," I asked him, annoyed.

He motioned towards Tamara, who I hadn't noticed coming in and who was now sitting next to my brother.

Fuck him.

I could see James talking as Tamara's cold expression softened. I wish I had an Extendable Ear on me.

"Silence!," Flitwick said to the class, as the lesson began.

I tried the Extension charm on my beetle, without really noticing what I was doing and raced up to Tamara as soon as the lesson had ended.

I passed James as I reached Tamara. He a dazed look on his face, that was happy beyond excitement and also like he couldn't believe what had just happened.

I prayed to Merlin that it had nothing to do with Tamara.

"'Mara!," I called out to her.

"Hi," she said, smiling at me.

"What were you and James talking about?," I asked her, straight off.

Her smile and cheery expression vanished at that. I saw her bite her lip, as if she was debating something.

"Nothing," she said. I gave her an irritated sigh.

"Tell me," I said. "It definitely didn't look like nothing. James looked like he was in heaven when I passed him."

Judging by look on her face, she hadn't noticed.

"Well..." She hesitated.

"Tell me," I repeated, more firmly this time.

"Well, he asked me out," she said.

I was in shock. James, ask her out? Of all the people who could have asked her out, it had to be my brother. I had thought he liked her cousin, Bell. Apparently he didn't.

"What did you say?," I asked Tamara, becoming increasingly worried. She wouldn't say yes, would she? She had said she would go with me next Hogsmeade trip, and I was planning on asking her to be my girlfriend for the trip after that. I liked her and I thought she liked me too so that's what I wanted to do. Hopefully, she had said no.

"I said no because I was going with you next Hogsmeade trip," she replied.

Ha. Take that James, you asshole.

"But," Tamara said, becoming serious, "Then he asked me out for the one after that and...I said yes."

Why, Merlin, why?

I thought she had liked me. I thought she would keep on coming to Hogsmeade with me. Well I was wrong.

"Oh," I said.  
I suppose I could ask her to be my girlfriend for the one after that trip she was going with James, but I knew she had been crushing on him for years, and she would probably forget all about me after it, and besides, even if she didn't forget me, I would have to ask her out in 3 Hogsmeade trips, which is in 3 months.

I couldn't wait that long. But I couldn't ask her next Hogsmeade trip either because it was far too soon and I had only taken her for one trip so far. Next trip would probably the last time I ever took her.

Why did James have to fucking ask her out? Why did she have to fucking say yes?

"Albus, what's wrong?," Tamara asked me worriedly.

What's wrong is that you and my fucking brother have completely sabotaged my chances of getting the girl that I have been crushing on since first year, which is you!, I wanted to say. But I didn't.

"Nothing," I said, instead. What is it with people and saying nothing? They always say it! And it's never ever ever nothing. I hope I'll be better at concealing "nothing" than Tamara.

She raised her eyebrows at me. Oh God, I hate it when people do that.

"Because you totally don't look like your family's just died," she said.

That is not a good topic. Because I always worried my family would die. My dad lost both his parents hen he was a baby. I was glad I hadn't but maybe it was better for him because he never knew his parents. I did. And I would hate to lose them.

"No, I mean seriously!," I said, my voice raised. She looked at me, shocked.

"Albus, please, just tell me what's wrong!" She was practically begging me now. Like a pathetic little girl.

But that's what made me nearly say it. Because she looked so upset now and there were tears in her eyes, ready to spill.

But she doesn't want you, I thought. She chose James, she doesn't want you. All you will ever be to her is a friend, and in time, she will forget about you because she doesn't care.

She doesn't care about you. I could hear a voice whispering it to me, over and over again in my head.

Refound anger coursed through me. I wouldn't tell her. I can't. I can't just say oh I'm mad at you because I wanted to ask to be my girlfriend but now that you're going on a date with James you'll probably say no.

"No, Wood, you listen," I growled. Literally. I was almost as surprised as Tamara was that I had called her by her surname. A bad kind of surprised. I didn't want to call her by her surname! Where did that come from?!

"Forget it, just leave me alone," I said, going the defeated route. I walked away from her as quickly as I could, without it being stupidly obvious.

The words still echoed through my head.

She doesn't care about you.

She never will.

"Albus!" I felt a hand on my arm. I turned to look at Tamara.

She detached her hand from my arm and put both on my face.

"Tell me what's wrong," she whispered. I looked her in the eye. I loved her beautiful brown eyes. They were such a lovely shade and they had so much emotion in them. I forced back the urge to kiss her. I wanted to kiss her so badly.

But I couldn't.

Because she liked James, not me.

It would be wrong of me.

Wrong of her if she kissed me back.

I averted my gaze.

"Forget it," I whispered back. I broke away from her, reluctantly and ran back to my dorm.

She cared about me, I knew that now.

But she could never fancy me like she fancies James.

All you are and you will ever be to her is a friend, the words kept repeating themselves.

Shut up, she kissed you, she fancies you. The more logical part of me said. The part of me that really liked Tamara and would never give up hope.

That maybe we could still get together.

Maybe.

Just maybe.

Hoping to stop this flow of sentimentally depressing thoughts, I went into the Common Room. It was very loud in there, someone had just set off some fireworks. Normally, I definitely would have stopped by but I was pretty sure that Tamara was following me so I ran up to my dorms. The only person there was Louis.

"Hey Lou," I said, looking around.

Why wasn't there a single fucking place to hide?

"Al, who are you running from?," Louis asked me.

"Tamara," I replied. "Don't ask," I added as he opened his mouth, "Where should I hide?"

"I don't know!," he protested. "Go into the bathroom and lock the door."

I hurried into the bathroom.

"If she asks you where I am, say that you haven't seen me and come up with an excuse."

"Like what?," Louis asked me.

"I don't know!," I said, now desperate as I heard footsteps. "Anything, as long as it gets rid of her." I closed the door quickly and locked it, pressing my ear to the door to listen.

"Hi," I heard Tamara say to Louis. "Have you seen Albus?"

"No," Louis answered.

Say something, say something!

Just get rid of her!

"He...he has Quidditch practice."

Fuck you Louis.

Doesn't he know that Tamara is on the team too?!

I could hear Tamara talking, obviously not believing what Louis had said. I heard her taking steps towards the door. I heard the door open so I assumed it was safe to come out. I opened the door and came out.

"Louis, has-" I started to ask him if Tamara had gone, but my question was answered before I could properly voice it.

Tamara hadn't left yet, she was standing by the door.

Shit.

I glared at Louis. He was supposed to get rid of her! And now she would force me to talk to her!

"Albus, can I talk to you?," she asked me. Louis responded before I could say anything.

"No," he said. "He's hurt, he doesn't want to talk to you, now back the fuck off."

YES LOUIS.

That is what good cousins do.

Tamara's face darkened. It was kind of scary.

"It's none of your business," she said angrily. "You're not even letting Albus talk!"

It's good to know you respect my rights to talk, Tamara.

But I really don't care because Louis is saying all the stuff I want to say for me.

So I really don't need to talk.

"He's my cousin," Louis said, now just as angry too. "He told me he didn't want to talk to you, okay?"

Um.

Technically I didn't.

But my actions kind of made it pretty clear so anyway...

I'm just standing here not saying anything while two people argue. About me. That's kind of awkward.

Understatement.

It's really awkward.

"I need to talk to him," Tamara was saying. She turned to me. "You didn't even tell me why you were mad and then you just avoid me. What's that supposed to mean? What did I do?"

I really can't answer that question.

But she should know that its because she ruined my plans of winning her over. Which sounds weird. But still.

What was I suppose to say?

Improvise, I thought.

So I said the one thing that came to my mind.

"Maybe I'm not avoiding you! Maybe I just haven't had time to be with you!"

Oh that was stupid.

I've only been "avoiding" her for a few minutes. No time to be with you. Sure. She would definitely believe that.

Not.

Even Nona MacMillan wouldn't believe it and she's the dumbest girl in our year.

Not that I would ever be in this situation with her.

"Bullshit!," Tamara yelled at me. "You're avoiding me and you know it! You just stormed off after Charms and haven't spoken to me since!"

Um, no.

As I recall, she was the one who was chasing after me when I didn't tell her why I was angry.

I glared at her. She glared back at me.

I felt sorry for Louis. He just has to stand there while all this tension goes on.

Not...that kind of tension.

Someone should speak.

No?

Fine then.

"Maybe I just don't want to talk to you, alright?," I said, my voice now surprisingly calm. "Can you just leave me alone and stop trying to talk to me?"

I could see that hurt her.

Why, I don't know.

She shouldn't care if I don't want to talk to her.

I don't matter to her.

You do matter to her! It's so obvious can't you see it?!

That was my brain. The logical part of me.

But I was listening my heart, the emotional part.

And that part was telling me I didn't matter to her.

"I'll go now," Tamara said quietly. Her voice was calm. Too calm. The calmness you feel when you are ready to cry.

Like I felt.

She left then, and I knew I would see her again.

But I felt like I wouldn't.

I would never see her again like she was.

Because she had taken my words seriously.

She wouldn't try to speak to me again.

So I knew I couldn't.

Feeling like my world had smashed, I sank into my bed, putting my face in my hands.

I felt Louis coming over and sitting down beside me.

"You should go after her," he said.

I removed my face from my hands and looked at him.

"I can't do that!," I said. "After all that I just said to her?"

"Yes," he replied. "Because deep down, you both know that what you said wasn't true."

"I-" I was going to tell him that I couldn't, because she wouldn't take me seriously, unless I told her about my Hogsmeade plans and why I was mad.

There were a series of cracking noises from just outside the door. Like spells you fire from your wand.

Louis and I both sprang up, running to the door.

I looked around. At first, I couldn't see anything until I saw a pair of feet running on the floor.

Which could only mean one thing.

"The invisibility cloak?," Louis gaped. "But where did that person get it from? James was supposed to have it!"

"I don't know what happened, but where's Tamara?," I said, panicked.

We shared a look that said we both knew the answer to that, and took off after the pair of feet, which were running faster now that it must have heard us.

We chased the mysterious pair of feet all the way to where I knew the Room of Requirement was, shooting Body Bind Curses at it the whole way. And missing.

It's difficult to run and curse at the same time.

The pair of feet ran into the room at the first time. Then the door to the room opened and closed.

Louis and I ran into the room, which turned out to just be a cupboard.

My heart stopped.

Tamara was lying there, unconscious, her hair covering her face.

"Rennervate," Louis said, pointing his wand down at her. Nothing happened.

"Rennervate," I said, doing the same. Still, nothing happened.

What happened to her?

I decided I didn't care. Just that she was okay.

I may not be able to talk to her but that doesn't mean I don't care about her.

"Let's take her to the Hospital Wing," I said, levitating her body.

I'm making it sound like she's dead.

I prayed to Merlin that she wasn't.

I prayed to God that Merlin would answer my prayer.

For once.

A/N: I'm sorry this chapter is a bit weird and I was terrible at writing Albus' POV! Let me know what you think! PLEASE REVIEW :3 


	10. Chapter 10: Making Up

Tamara's POV

I woke up in a brightly lit room, it was very long as well and I could see fuzzy oblongs moving about. My eyes were still blurry and all I could see in front of me was a blurred white ball with a mass of black on it.

What the fuck?!

I rubbed my eyes. The ball had seen was a head. The mass of black was hair, which had been thrown into a messy bun.

"Tamara you're awake!" I heard Violetta squeal, and the next thing I knew, I was being squished in a hug.

Violetta let me go, as I took in my surroundings. I realised I must be in the Hospital Wing.

"Why am I here?," I asked them, confused. "What happened?"

"Don't you remember anything?," Violetta asked me. I shook my head. I remember vaguely something about a fight where wands were involved. I knew it had been me and another person but I couldn't remember who and I don't remember coming here.

"Well, Louis and Albus heard a lot of noise outside their dorm so they came out and they saw a pair of feet running and they chased it to the Room of Requirement and they found you in it, knocked out."

Did that really happen? Huh.

A million questions were buzzing through my head. Why was it a pair of feet? Why was I knocked out? But most importantly...

"Why was it Louis an Albus?," I asked.

"Albus won't tell us anything," Violetta said. "But from what I've gathered from what Louis has gathered, Albus was avoiding you and you went to his dorm to find out why and then was attacked by a mystery person when you left."

And it all came flooding back to me.

The date with James.

My argument with Albus.

The brief wand duel I had with Flint.

The red flash of light.

So much had happened then.

"Do you remember now?," Violetta, who had been watching me, said.

I nodded.

"Okay." She smiled at me. "And 'Mara," she added, "We're friends again aren't we?"

I stared at her. She flushed.

"I mean, because I'd made up with Rose and you know...I just thought-"

"We're friends again," I said, a huge grin creeping up face. I saw the same on her face too, as she came over and hugged me.

"I missed you," she said, hugging me fiercely. "And I'm sorry I was flirting with James, I knew you liked him, I shouldn't have done so. But I don't like him any more, I won't try to take him away from you."

Celesta had already taken over him.

But he liked me.

I knew it.

I could flirt with James without worrying he would fall for someone else.

"Me too," I said into her hair. "It's good to have you back. Any idea who you like now?," I smirked, as I let go of her.

"No," she said, quickly. Too quickly.

"Sure," I said, sarcastically. "Tell me come on, I could set you up with him."

She laughed. "I'm not telling, someone in the Weasley family."

I made a mental list of all the boys in the Weasley family.

Fred Weasley II, Hugo Weasley and Louis Weasley.

"Fred?," I guessed. Violetta shook her head.

Then it was probably Louis. Hugo was two years below us and hardly spent any time with us.

"Louis?," I asked her.

She went red.

"Um, yeah," she said, embarrassed.

"Ooh, nice," I smirked again.

"I, um, brought you some breakfast, in case you were hungry," Violetta said, changing the topic to my favourite topic which was food.

"Breakfast?" I was confused. I just had breakfast! Shouldn't it be lunch?

"How long have I been here?," I asked Violetta.

"Well, you had to stay for the night and classes are just starting," Violetta said.

After she said that, I realised how hungry I was. As I reached out for a piece of toast, I remembered something that Flint had said yesterday that had been nagging me.

"Why did you let Flint in?," I asked Violetta, taking a bite of the toast.

She looked horrified at the thought.

"I didn't do that!," she said, her eyes wide. She might have been lying. I wasn't sure.

"Well, I asked him how he got into the Common Room and he said he bribed you to get him in with 3 galleons," I said.

"I swear I didn't, you can make me take Veritaserum but I swear I never did anything like that, you know I wouldn't."

And I knew.

Flint had lied.

Because you can always tell if Violetta is telling the truth because if she was, she always said "You can make me take Veritaserum".

But then, how had he gotten in?

"Maybe he bribed someone else and he said it was you to try to break us up," I said, voicing my thoughts.

"But why would he want to break us up?," Violetta said.

"I don't know," I said.

Something changed in Violetta's face suddenly, as a thought passed her mind.

"I think he might have used the Imperius Curse on me," she said, her voice lowered and sounding terrified.

I was getting a little creeped out too.

"It's illegal though," I said, a little doubtful.

"I'm sure now," Violetta said. "Yesterday, I was going to the bathroom and then I can't remember anything but I found myself in the Common Room and James was chasing me."

"Chasing you?," I said, confused.

Violetta nodded.

"Albus and Louis were chasing someone who was invisible, they could only see their feet," she explained.

And something in my brain clicked. Suddenly, it all made sense.

"So Flint Imperiused you to get him into the Common Room and to go and steal the Invisibility Cloak which James had, and then after he cursed me, he put the Cloak on both of us and left me in the Room of Requirement." Now I was VERY creeped out.

Flint really must have wanted his revenge.

Or it didn't matter to him that he was doing something illegal because he had done it before.

"We have to make sure he actually did it," Violetta said, "before we get him arrested." She got up and started heading out. "We can ask Slughorn for some Veritaserum. I'll go tell Rose. She's waiting to see you."

I froze.

Rose?

Here to see me?

"Do I have to see her?," I asked, worried.

Violetta looked at me, hands on her hips.

"Yes you do," she said firmly, "It's about time you got this stupid business of yours sorted. She really wants to see you so just let her."

I raised my eyebrows skeptically.

"She does," Violetta said. "She was the first person to arrive at the Hospital Wing yesterday, apart from Albus and Louis. She was practically screaming at Madam Pomfrey to let her in to see you."

"The first person? Who else was here," I asked, curious.

"James and Celesta," she said, matter-of-factly. With that she went and left.

Brilliant.

Now I had to see Rose, who had t spoken to me in...I don't even know how long.

The truth was I was worried. I was worried that it would end up in an awkward silence. Worried that she would say she still wasn't my friend. Worried that I might say something wrong.

Worried that she still hasn't forgiven me.

"Tamara?" I saw Rose heading towards me.

She sat in the bed, but unlike Violetta, she didn't hug me.

Which hurt.

I just really hoped we could fix this.

I took a deep breath.

"I'm sorry I-" I began but broke off, because Rose had started saying that as well, at the same time.

"You go first," I said.

Rose took a deep breath, like me.

"I'm sorry that I got so upset about the seats," she said. "They were just seats and I shouldn't have for so worked up about it and not talked to you for a week."

It was only a week?

"It's okay," I said. "I'm sorry that I didn't save a seat for you-well I did, but James took it because Albus took his-and that I kind of just dumped you to sit next to your cousin even though-well you were two seats away from me." I couldn't stop myself from grinning.

"I can't believe we weren't speaking to each other because of this," Rose said. We both looked at each other and cracked up laughing. Not because it was funny. But because of how stupid we had both been.

And because it felt so good to have your best friend back.

"Rose," I said, after we had both stopped laughing, "we're friends again aren't we?"

"Yep," Rose said, grinning at me.

I outstretched my hand. "Friends?"

She outstretched hers and we shook hands. "Friends. "

And then we burst out laughing again because we had just shaken hands.

It was one of the best moments of my life, and even though Madam Pomfrey came in a few minutes later and kicked Rose out and told me to get some sleep, I couldn't. I lay on my bed, smiling like an idiot, at the fact that I now had both my best friends back again.

A/N:Yay! They all made up!

So what did you think of this chapter? I'm sorry it wasn't so long but I wanted to just focus on Tamara making up for this chapter. I would like to say a thank you to all those people who have reviewed for this story, they really encourage me! Let me know what you think! PLEASE REVIEW :3


	11. Chapter 11: The Plan

"How are we going to get Veritaserum?," I asked Violetta and Rose, who were sitting opposite me.

It had been two days since the incident, Madam Pomfrey had finally let me out and Rose, Violetta and I were trying to figure out how to get Veritaserum to get Flint arrested, after Violetta had told Rose about him probably using the Imperius Curse.

We'd figured out everything, just not how we were going to get the Veritaserum.

"We just need to ask Slughorn and come up with an excuse, he'll give it to us," Violetta said, like it was that simple.

"Yes, but we need to think out an excuse, how many people ask him for Veritaserum?," I said. We had to plan this out. Or it would go wrong.

"We could just make it," Rose suggested. Violetta and I both looked at her like she was mad.

"Only you would say that," Violetta said. "It would take ages to make, we don't have the ingredients and it's really, really hard."

"I've made it before," Rose said, affronted. She gasped. "Oh my God! I'm so stupid! I just remembered that I have a bottle in my cupboard!"

"What the fuck, Rose," Violetta said. "Ok then, we can do it tomorrow."

When I went down to the Common Room the next morning, Rose and Violetta were already there, waiting for me.

"Ready?," Rose asked us.

"Yep," I answered. "Let's go."

When we entered the Great Hall, Violetta, Rose and I went to the Gryffindor table.

"Oh look, there's Scorpius," Rose said her lines, going a bit red. "I'll be right back, I have to go and talk to him." She got up and made her way to the Slytherin table.

We had to act a bit because there were lots of people around us, so we couldn't just sit down and go over there, and of course, it would be stupid for us to go sit at the Slytherin table straight away because people would notice and ask questions and it would just be a bit awkward and stuff.

Five minutes passed. Rose didn't come back.

"Violetta, we should check on Rose," I said. "In case she's snogging Scorpius or something."

In truth, Rose hadn't even been to see Scorpius. She had been dropping the Veritaserum into Flint's drink. She had the Cloak on so no one would see her.

I saw her giving me the thumbs up when she had appeared next to Scorpius, before she started talking and flirting with him.

The rest of the plan was up to me and Violetta.

I strode up to Flint, who had just taken a sip of his pumpkin juice which was spiked with Veritaserum and was choking slightly.

"Is the Veritaserum working yet," Violetta asked me.

"Yes," I said, as we approached Flint.

"Sonorus," I pointed my wand at my throat. Violetta did the same, but pointed her wand at Flint.

"Hello?," my voice rang out clearly and everyone in the Hall fell silent to listen I cleared my throat.

"Mattheo Flint, you used the Imperius Curse on someone," I said."Is this true?"

"Yes," Flint answered. Whispers broke out all over the Hall at that. I cleared my throat again and everyone was quiet again.

"Who did you use it on?," I asked, continuing.

"I used it on Violetta Smith, who was my ex-girlfriend."

"When was this?"

"Yesterday, after my Charms lesson. I sneaked up behind her when she was going to the bathroom and put the curse on her."

"What did you tell her to do?"

"I told her to let me into the Gryffindor Common Room and then go and steal James Potter's Invisibility Cloak."

The Veritaserum was wearing off now, but I think we had enough information for the teachers. Flint got up, having finished his breakfast, and headed towards the door. However, before he pull get there, ropes wrapped themselves around him. McGonagall headed over.

"Never, in my 24 years as Headmistress, have I had to call Aurors to Hogwarts," she said, furiously. "Especially not to arrest a student! As if that wasn't enough, you are not even of age! You are a disgrace to this school, you have shamed us! We will have to endure all the reporters and be put into the Daily Prophet! That means a lot of publicity and people may not want to send their children here anymore, because of YOU!"

Flint was trying to say something, but the ropes had already covered his mouth.

"I regret the day your name was written in the Book of Admittance," Professor McGonagall said, much calmer but with a bitter coldness in her voice. "You will stay here and wait for the Aurors to come."

Flint tried to move his legs but failed and tripped.

"Look," Rose said, showing me the Daily Prophet. It was Sunday and we were lounging on our favourite chairs by the fire because it was still early in the morning.

I took the paper from her and found this on the front page:

HOGWARTS STUDENT ARRESTED

Mattheo Flint, 16, has been arrested for using the Imperius Curse on fellow student Violetta Smith after he was dosed with Veritaserum. The Veritaserum was given to him by Rose Weasley, daughter of Ron and Hermione Weasley and he was interrogated shortly after by his victim Violetta Smith, who was also said to be his ex-girlfriend, and Tamara Wood, daughters of former Quidditch stars Katie and Oliver Wood. After the truth was found out, Headmistress Minerva McGonagall put ropes around Flint and called the Aurors.

"'This has never happened before and I assure you it will never happen,'" she said. See page 6.

I sighed and tossed the newspaper onto the table. I wish the Prophet hadn't mentioned me, although that was to be expected. But being the child of two Quidditch stars, I had had my share of reporters and being in the newspapers. Which I hated. I couldn't had any privacy. None of my family could. We thought it would get better when my mum retired (my dad had already as he was 3 years older than my mum). And it did. That was when I was 9. Two years later, Fred and I both got our Hogwarts letters and it was publicity again. It wasn't the Prophet. They wouldn't care about who went to Hogwarts or who was sorted into what house. It was Witch Weekly, who poked their noses into people's lives because they had nothing better to do with their own lives. I used to like reading it actually. But I burnt all my copies after I saw an article about me when I got my first boyfriend.

I still burn them. It's very satisfying. Except now, I jinx them and punch them and rip them first. Then I burn the remains. Even more satisfying.

But now even the Prophet had mentioned me so Witch Weekly would have some appallingly interpreted version of the story and I would be in the spotlight again. It was nearly Christmas too. My parents would find out and yell at me when I went home.

I bet Rose felt like that too. She knew how I felt. She would get even more attention than me because she was the daughter of the other two members of the Golden Trio, apart from Harry Potter himself.

Violetta would probably get some publicity too. And she might have to go to Flint's trial and everything. If they still did trials. They probably wouldn't give one for him. He would be sent straight to Azkaban.

"Flint's been expelled," Violetta said suddenly.

"What?" I moved over to her chair. I should have bothered to read page 6. It read:

Sources have informed the Daily Prophet that Mattheo Flint has been sent to Azkaban for 6 months without a trial. However, after his six months are over, he cannot return to finish his education.

"'I have never been so ashamed of a Hogwarts student,'" says Headmistress McGonagall. "'Mattheo Flint has brought shame on us, and I have therefore expelled him from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.'" Several students at Hogwarts claim that they also heard the Headmistress say to Flint "'I regret the day your name was written in the Book of Admittance.'"

"What's the Book of Admittance?," I asked. I had heard McGonagall mention it yesterday but I had forgotten to ask Rose what it was.

Rose rolled her eyes.

"If you had read Hogwarts: A History, you would know!," she said.

"I actually have read it," I told her, "but I can't remember every single thing that's written in it!"

"If you found it interesting, you would!," she retorted.

"Okay, I didn't find it interesting," I said, which was too true, "but obviously you did so you its have remembered so you'll just have to tell me."

Rose sighed, giving me a half-faked glare.

"And don't speak textbook," I said as she opened her mouth. I received a full, non-fakes glare from her for that.

"Fine," she said. "The Book of Admittance and the Quill of Acceptance select students for Hogwarts. They're both ancient and they're in a locked room in a tower. The Quill is very sensitive and when a child shows signs of magic, it tries to write down that child's name in the Book. If their name's written down, they've been selected for Hogwarts, but the Boom will often snap shut because it requires stronger signs of magic from a child if they are to be written down in it and selected for Hogwarts."

"Right," I said. "Let's go to the kitchens and get some cake."

Rose yawned.

"I can't be bothered," she said. "Tell Vi to go with you."

Violetta was sitting on her chair, stroking her cat, Panda, in an absent minded way. Don't judge the name Panda. Panda actually looks like a panda.

"Vi, come to the kitchens with me," I said, attempting to pull her up. And failing.

"Ugh, no," she said, burying her face in Panda. "You're the only person who's hungry, go by yourself."

"All by yourself," Rose sang in a teasing way. I gave her the finger.

"Shut up," I said as I went out.

I got to the painting of the fruits and tickled the pear.

"Do you have any cake?," I asked an elf when I had reached the kitchens.

"Of course, Miss, I will bring it to you," the elf said, bowing. He went off, coming back with half a red velvet cake.

"Thank you," I said and went out.

"Tamara!," I heard someone call my name. I turned around and saw Lily Potter.

"Hi Lily," I said, hiding the cake behind my back.

"Hi," she said, ignoring my indiscreet attempt to hide food. "James wanted me to give you this." She handed me a letter in an envelope.

"Oh," I said, a little surprised. "Thanks."

"No problem," she said, smiling. "Bye."

I entered the portrait of the Fat Lady. I would read the letter later. I put it in my pocket.

Violetta and Rose were still there and Common Room was still quite empty except for a few first years doing homework.

"I got cake," I told Rose and Violetta.

"Red velvet! Let's go back to our dorm to eat it," Violetta said.

We went back to our dorm and started feasting on the cake. It was delicious.

"I need to go to the library to return a book," Violetta said after we had finished the cake and gotten rid of the evidence.

"I'll come with you," Rose said immediately. They both looked at me.

"I'll stay here, Lily gave me a letter and I want to read it now," I said.

"Lily gave you a letter?," Rose said. "Okay then."

I waited until I heard them going down the stairs to open the letter. James had written it. I wanted to read it in private.

Tamara, it read,

Albus told me that he didn't want to go to Hogsmeade with you anymore. I'm sorry about that. You don't have to believe me but I heard he's going with Alana Davies so you can ask her.

But I thought that you wouldn't have a date to Hogsmeade anymore. I know you said I couldn't ditch Celesta, but the fact is now she's ditched me and she's now going with Aaron Thomas. So, I was wondering, will you go to Hogsmeade with me next weekend?

James

A/N: Poor Tamara! She got ditched! Do you think she should say yes? Let me know!

For people who don't know about the Quill and the Book, there is stuff about them on Pottermore and they belong to J.K. Rowling.

PLEASE REVIEW:3


	12. Chapter 12: Yes Or No?

I stared at the letter unseeingly, so many unsorted emotions coursing through me.

But they shouldn't be unsorted. I should be happy. James had asked me to go to Hogsmeade with him. Of course I should be happy.

But there was also hurt, sadness and confusion. And worry. Albus told James that he had been going with me. But he didn't seem jealous or angry at me in the letter. Maybe that's because he hasn't found out about the kiss. If that was the case, I honestly hoped that he never would.

And the hurt and sadness.

Albus had ditched me.

For Alana Davies. Who was a fucking whore. And a slut.

But then I remembered that James might have been lying. He had wanted to go with me before, after all. I should ask Davies at lunch.

It turns out that I didn't need to wait until lunch. I spotted her with her friends when I went to find Rose and Violetta in the library. I saw Violetta working on her Potions essay.

"Shit, I need to get started on that," I said, because of course I had forgotten its existence and it was due tomorrow.

"Where's Rose?," I asked, when I had gotten all my stuff out. Violetta pointed to a little corner where Rose was snogging Scorpius.

It was actually kind of disgusting to watch so I turned away.

I got up and went over to Alana Davies. I got the feeling that this wouldn't end well, what with what happened on the Express and all. She probably figured out it was me.

"Um, hi, can I talk to you for a second?," I asked her. She glared at me, but got up.

"What?," she asked.

I lowered my voice. "Is it true that Albus asked you out to Hogsmeade next week?"

"Yeah," she said. "Why?"

"And...you said yes?," I asked, my heart sinking.

Please say you said no.

Please, please, please.

"I said yes," Davies said. "Why would I say no?"

"Never mind," I said, looking away so that she couldn't see the tears forming in my eyes. "Thanks for talking." She gave me a look and went back to her friends. I went back to mine.

"Was is it?," Violetta asked. "You look like your family's just died."

That was what I told Albus when he was mad at me.

Before he pretty much never spoke to me again.

Before he decided that he didn't like me anymore and decided to go on a date with Davies.

I couldn't control the tears anymore as they started slipping rapidly down my cheeks. Violetta quickly pulled me into my chair and put an arm round me.

"'Mara, what's wrong?," she asked.

I didn't see any point in not telling her so I told her. Everything.

When I had finished, I was still crying so she just held me tightly, waiting patiently until I stopped.

Stop crying, I told myself. You're making yourself look stupid.

No I'm not, my heart was saying. Albus ditched me, I have every right to cry.

YOU ARE GOING ON A FUCKING DATE WITH JAMES FUCKING POTTER.

But-

Are you implying that you like Albus and not James?!

No, but I haven't said yes yet.

THEN SAY YES!

But I want to go with Albus!

Oh no, you did not just say that. You can't like Albus, you're going on a date with James!

That's stupid, I can say no if I want.

No you can't, because that would hurt his feelings.

But he might not like me, I'm about the 97th girl he's dated.

He does like you!

Maybe not. He might like Celesta.

HE WON'T LIKE HER ANYMORE IF SHE'S JUST FUCKING DITCHED HIM.

So I should say yes?

YES!

"Should I say yes to James!," I asked Violetta, now that I realised I wasn't crying anymore.

"Do you have any reason to say no?," she asked me.

Did I?

I wanted to go with Albus.

Oh no, no, no.

Did I just say that?

Ignore the fact that I was thinking it before as well.

Would I rather go with James or Albus?

James.

Albus.

Under a bundle of lies inside me, there was an answer.

But I couldn't reach it.

If it was Albus, he wasn't going with me anyway so I would be like a sad girl pining over a boy.

If it was James, he had just asked me I might as well say yes.

"I'm going to say yes," I told Violetta. A sudden thought struck me. "But who will you go with, then?"

"Louis asked me to go with him," she said, grinning.

"Brilliant," I gave her a hug. "And Rose can..." I looked at her, still sucking Scorpius' face off.

"Scorpius will probably ask her out," I said.

I got up and went over to Lily, who was reading a couple of tables away from me.

"Have you seen James?," I asked her.

"Is it an answer to the-thing?," she asked.

"Yeah, but I'll tell him," I said. Lily would probably be a bit pissed if she had to constantly act as our messenger.

"I think he's in the Common Room," she said, returning to her book.

"Okay, thanks." I hurried out of the library, ignoring the fact that all my stuff was still there and I had done nothing for my essay and I would probably have to wing it. Slash copy from Rose.

I scanned the Common Room for James, finally spotting him playing Exploding Snap with his friends by the fire.

"Well?," he asked when he saw me.

"Yes," I said, smiling at me. He broke out into a huge grin.

He got up, coming towards me. I threw my arms around him before I knew what I was doing, his arms pulling me towards him. I tilted my head up and his down, our lips meeting.

He was a good kisser.

Really good.

But he was like Albus when he kissed.

I really did not need a reminder that it would be him I would be snogging in Hogsmeade and not Albus.

Even though I couldn't figure out why I preferred Albus over him. I liked James. I had since the beginning of first year. My date with Albus was just a weird thing that stuck out like a sore thumb.

Probably Merlin trying to make me think I'm going insane.

Well, you're failing Merlin because I'm pretty sure I'm already insane.

After we broke away, I went over to watch the continuing game of Exploding Snap. I like the game, okay?

Oh shit.

Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.

Albus was sitting right opposite me.

And it looked like he had seen me and James snogging.

A/N: NOOOO! Cliffhanger! I'm sorry but this may be the last chapter in quite a while as I will be on holiday with no Internet so I can't upload any chapters, but once I'm back, there should be new chapters every week :)

What did you think of this chapter? Would you like to see the next one from Albus' POV? Let me know! PLEASE REVIEW :3


	13. Chapter 13: Ditching

Albus' POV

I couldn't speak to James. Every time I even looked at him, I would feel a mad jealousy and blind rage. It made me want to rip him to shreds and who wants to feel that for their own brother? So I avoided him. I avoided Tamara too because I felt the same thing if I looked at her too. But it was different with her. I would want to tear her apart because she chose James but I couldn't stop myself from continuing to like her. But then I would remember she chose James and I would feel this empty sadness inside me.

So I avoided both of them. Which was hard with Tamara because she was Rose's best friend again and I spent a lot of time with Rose. Even harder with James because he was my own brother.

And then there was my date with Tamara. I really wanted to go but I had realised that it wouldn't mean anything because she would be going with James after that. What was the point? I may as well go with a girl who really wanted to go with me.

I'm not bragging or exaggerating but that would be most girls.

I closed my eyes and headed down to breakfast, deciding that I would have to ask the next girl I see out to Hogsmeade next weekend. Like, as long as it wasn't Tamara. I hated the idea of going on a date with friends and then have her go on a date with someone else.

Just no.

I saw Alana Davies also heading for the Great Hall.

Fuck, not her, she's a whore.

The second girl then, I said to myself. No more chances.

I saw Roxanne going to breakfast as well.

I'll take Davies. I'd rather a whore than incest, thank you very much.

I saw Alana giving me a flirtatious smile. Instead of puking as I would have done, I walked up to her, returning her smile.

Play it cool, I told myself.

"Hey," I said.

"Hi Albus," she said, using that flirting voice that I hated but unfortunately girls always used on me.

Except for Tamara. She never flirted with me. She was simply herself which I liked.

DON'T THINK ABOUT TAMARA!, my brain screamed at me.

"Fancy going to Hogsmeade together next weekend," I asked her, knowing the answer.

"Aren't you going with Wood?," she asked, a little surprised.

"Nope, d'you want to come?," I asked her again.

"Sure," she smiled at me again.

I managed not to cringe. I knew I would have to suffer through this next week but it was ten times better than having to go with Tamara.

"What the fuck, Albus?!"

Shit.

I turned to see my cousin Roxanne, who was looking livid.

Lovely.

"What the fuck, what?," I asked, playing it stupid.

"You can't just ditch Tamara!," she shouted at me. That's her Weasley temper kicking in.

"Who said I was going with Tamara?," I said, even though my whole family knew I was going with her.

"You!," she yelled, pointing a finger at me. "You said! And now you've gone and asked a slutty Hufflepuff out without telling her! How do you think she'll feel?"

The answer to that is nothing because she doesn't care about me, which is why I asked this "slutty Hufflepuff" out.

I ignored Roxanne and went over to the Gryffindor table.

"Albus, you can't do this!," I heard someone hiss beside me as I grabbed a croissant.

"Give it a rest Roxanne, for God's sake!," I said, my part Weasley temper also on now.

"No!," she said. "Who will she go with then?"

You'd think she wouldn't really care, considering that she's basically never spoken to Tamara. Except Roxanne feels quite strongly about fairness and justice.

"She can go with James," I answered. And she could. In fact, if I told James I wasn't going with Tamara anymore, the first thing he would do is ask we out. His crush on Tamara wasn't exactly a secret in our family. Mine isn't either.

I headed over to James, who was sitting with Dominique, Louis and Molly, who is Lucy's twin but a Gryffindor.

"Al," he greeted me. "What's up?"

"I'm not going with Tamara anymore," I mouthed at him. I didn't want any of my cousins to know and luckily, James was the only one who could read my mouthing, apart from Rose and Lily.

"Whatever," James shrugged.

"Don't tell the others," I said, as I left, seeing my cousins turning to James with questioning looks.

"Fine." James rolled his eyes. "Can I tell Lily?"

Lily wouldn't be mad that I was ditching Tamara.

"If you tell her not to tell anyone," I said, and walked back to where Roxanne was sitting so I could have my breakfast.

"Don't start," I told Roxanne, as I saw her opening her mouth.

"I wasn't going to," she hissed angrily. "I was just going to tell you to hurry up because we have Quidditch practice in 10 minutes."

Oh, I forgot about that.

At least I wouldn't have to be with Tamara and James as they're Chasers and I'm a Beater.

I know, lots of people expect me to be Seeker but I'm not Seeker, Roxanne is. I just can't deal with the pressure of being Seeker, and I'm terrible at shooting so I'm Beater. Hugo is too. He made the team because James didn't want it to seem like he was only picking the older kids for the team, and Fred and Louis both don't want to be on the team, even though they like Quidditch. No one else in our family really shows any interest in being on the team, but Lucy, Molly and Dominique like commentating. Victoire did too. Lily likes Quidditch, but she wanted to be Chaser and James thought that the current ones were better so she might get to play Chaser when he left.

When I went into the changing rooms, everyone else was already there, except Tamara.

"Where's Tamara?," I asked Carrie Moon, a seventh year girl who was our Keeper.

"No, and she'd better hurry too, or she'll be late and James will kill her," Moon said.

I doubt that. Because James likes her and all. Even James isn't dumb enough to yell at slash kill the girl he likes.

"Have you asked her out yet?," I hissed at James when I saw him.

"I wrote her a letter that I told Lily to give to her but I don't think she's bothered to do it yet," James told me.

Merlin, can't he just ask her out face to face?!

And if he couldn't, why ask Lily, of all people to give it to her?!

Lily would never bother to do it. And she's nosy so she'd read it and tell the whole family. She'd do it even if James told her not to tell because she's awful at keeping secrets.

I told James exactly what I thought.

"Don't be mean to Lily," he told me.

"Coming from her brother who fights with her every day," I pointed out.

"You do too."

"At least I know that I'm not nice to her."

"She's not nice to us either."

"That's not the point."

We were still bickering when Tamara cam in, looking a bit preoccupied.

"Tamara, hurry up!" James' attention was on her at once. When we headed out to the pitch, I saw James hanging by the changing rooms uncertainly, waiting for her.

I pulled him by the arm and dragged him to the pitch with me. I couldn't stand the thought of James and Tamara slowly wandering and having a deep conversation while they flirted with each other.

Merlin knows I would probably have to endure that for the rest of my time at school if they became boyfriend and girlfriend.

Tamara said yes to James and is now going to Hogsmeade with him. I watched them snog each other's brains out while Exploding Snap lay in an abandoned pile.

Apparently Tamara didn't notice me until she sat down with James. She looked scared for her life. Or maybe it was my expression too. I felt this boiling anger inside me and I wanted to see them being tortured, like burnt at a stake. Maybe just with James.

"Albus, what's wrong? You look ready to kill," James said.

Well James, that's probably because I am.

"Albus, is something wrong?," Tamara asked me softly.

All my anger melted away at that. Into sadness.

You can't give in to her, I told myself. If you do, you'll fall for her again and it will be torture to be in love with her while she loves another guy.

Except I think I've already fallen for her.

I think I did a long time ago.

The day of Hogsmeade finally came and I wasn't sure if I was glad or not. For one, I knew I wasn't looking forward to spending the whole day with Alana. She'd probably make us go to Madam Puddifoot's and then I would have to snog her and everything.

Ugh.

Why did I take Alana again?

Oh yes, because it was a choice between her and my cousin.

I think I'm too hard on myself sometimes, I should have just asked a girl who is quite pretty and not a slit or whore.

Maybe Corner, she's quite nice.

Well it's too late now because I've already asked Davies out.

I went down to the Great Hall where I said I would meet Alana, dreading the day.

"Hurry up," Alana said when she saw me.

Hello to you too.

"Sorry," I said instead. "Let's go then."

She gave me one of her disgusting smiles, linking her arm through mine.

I so wished it was someone else's arm.

I slipped through the crowds at Hogsmeade, dodging into a dark alley and putting the Invisibility Cloak on. Thank God I thought to bring it with me. I couldn't stand any more time with Alana.

True to my predictions, the first place she wanted to go to was Madam Puddifoot's where she spent two hours blabbing on about her opinions on her friends' boyfriends and what she thought of all makeup brands.

I. Don't. Give. A. Fucking. Shit.

I wanted to scream that at her the whole time but I couldn't because that would just...end badly.

After Madam Puddifoot's, she didn't want to go ANYWHERE that was interesting.

"Do you want to go to Honeydukes?," I had asked her.

"Ugh, no, I'm on a diet, I can't go to Honeydukes," she had said.

"What about Zonko's? Or Weasley's Wizard Wheezes?," I had asked.

"No," she said, "it's too loud and crowded in there."

"The Three Broomsticks?"

"No."

"Then where do you want to go," I had wanted to scream it at her, instead I said it in a calm tone. I should have done the former.

"I'd like to go to the bookshop," she had said. I had been surprised. I had expected her to say the hairdressing salon or something. If we went to the bookshop, I could buy a new copy of Quidditch Through The Ages as Louis had accidentally blown up my old one.

I should have known that the bookshop was too good to be true.

Alana had only wanted to go there because there was a sale on all of Gilderoy Lockhart's books, which are still quite popular, and we spent the next 40 minutes deciding which one she should get. Eventually, her friend, who had also come for the same reason, came and I had managed to slip away.

I stood in the alley, now invisible, deciding where to go next.

The Three Broomsticks. I was aching for Butterbeer. I'd had nothing at Madam Puddifoot's because everything there was too sweet and sugary and now I was starving.

I went to The Three Broomsticks and bought myself a Butterbeer and sat down by myself, trying to avoid looking Rose and Louis, who were both snogging their dates (Malfoy and Smith).

I didn't want to sit by myself looking like a loser for too long, so I didn't downed the rest of my Butterbeer and went to Honeydukes to get some stuff to eat.

It was very crowded in there, as I grabbed a packet of Jelly Slugs, I saw a girl and boy walking out the door.

James and Tamara.

I paid for the slugs and quickly made my way to the door.

My first instinct was to go right up to them and yell in their faces because it was what I wanted to do, but that probably would be a bad idea.

As in, very, very bad.

Follow them, I thought. I saw the pair of them walking back to the castle, so I slipped the Cloak back on do Davies wouldn't see me and ran until I was about 5 metres behind them.

Far enough so they couldn't hear my footsteps but close enough so I could hear most of what they were saying.

"What if other boys try to-you know, ask me out or something?," Tamara was saying.

Like Albus, the words hung in the air, unspoken.

That means he doesn't like you anymore.

Shut up. She might.

I moved forward a little to hear what James was saying, because he was saying it very softly.

"It doesn't matter," he told Tamara.

..."you're my girlfriend now."

A/N: Poor Albus! I'm really sorry, I know quite a lot of people wanted Tamara to be with Albus but it was part of my plan from the beginning to have her be with James, but I promise it will turn out right for both of them!

I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while, I was away, but please let me know what you think of this chapter. REVIEW :3


	14. Chapter 14: The Aftermath

Tamara's POV

I was happier than I had ever been in my life. I had already been on three dates with James. Everything seemed unreal, too good to be true. I just couldn't believe that I was now officially James Potter's girlfriend. It was what I had wanted for years and years but it had simply been wistful thinking, only part of my wildest fantasies. I never knew that James actually liked me. Everything seemed so perfect. Except.

Albus.

Albus was the reason I lay awake at nights. He was the reason I couldn't concentrate in classes.

He was the reason I felt guilty about my relationship with James.

I did like James. But I also liked Albus. Yes, I knew I liked him. It wasn't one of those situations where you think you like one guy but you actually like another guy. I knew I liked both of them. But I didn't know who I liked more.

I had assumed that I liked James, since we're dating and we snog all time and I've liked him since first year and all that. But I also liked Albus. I liked him even though he was making it quite plain that he hated me. I avoided looking at him because he was always glaring at me when I did.

Albus is scary when he's glaring at you. His glare makes you feel that if you keep on looking at him, he'll pounce.

So I couldn't look at him. At all.

But I could think about him. You could bet I did that.

All. The. Time.

Even when I didn't want to.

Which was most of the time. Because of my boyfriend and all. I felt like I was cheating on him. Which I wasn't really because I wasn't going around snogging other guys. But I liked his brother and was constantly thinking about him.

I found myself wishing a lot that Albus would transfer schools or get expelled. Because then I could stop thinking about him. See, the thing is you can try all you can to stop thinking about someone but if they're there, then it's basically impossible. I was fighting a losing battle.

I just hoped James wouldn't notice. But I suspected that he was going through something similar.

With Celesta.

I knew that before they had been friends and stuff, but now, I've gathered that Celesta isn't speaking to him.

I have no idea why, since she's the one who ditched him.

I told Violetta all this because Rose would be mad that I was "cheating" on James.

It was the period before lunch, both Violetta and I had a free period, so she sat there listening while I poured out all my troubles.

"What if she didn't ditch James?," Violetta asked, after I had finished.

Oh fuck, I should have realised that a long time ago.

FUCK. FUCK. FUCK.

"I should have realised," I said. "She wasn't speaking to me either. I have to go and tell her." I got up, rushing towards the portrait, only to have Violetta grab me by my wrist.

"What are you doing?" I tried to yank it free but she had an iron strong hold. "Let me go! We have to go tell her!"

"Shut up and listen to me," Violetta told me. I did so.

"You can't just go barging into her lesson," she said. "Do you even know where she is?"

"Yes," I lied. "She has a free period, okay?"

Violetta looked sceptical. Taking advantage of her loosening her grip, I bolted, running to where Celesta had told me the Hufflepuff Common Room was. I wasn't prepared to see James already there, and nearly crashed into him.

Scratch the nearly. I crashed into him.

"Woah," he smiled at me. "What's the hurry?"

"Why are you here?," I asked him, ignoring his question.

He raised his eyebrows at that. "Why are you?"

"For the same reason as you," I said.

"Which is?"

"You're here to see Celesta aren't you?," I asked him.

"I am," he said, grinning. "How on earth did you know? You should be a seer."

"Me, a seer? No thanks."

"Why not? You'd be good." James made his voice sound dramatic and vague. "I sense you are I danger," he imitated.

"Shut up," I said, even though I was laughing. "You know I hate seers."

"Apart from Professor Lupin," James smirked at me.

Yes, Teddy Lupin had been the teacher for Divination, much to his godfather's dismay. Rumour has it that he only signed up for the job as a joke and to spite his family. He resigned after the first term.

"I did not like Teddy!," I said with mock fury. "Besides, he's already-"

"Are you two just going to stand there arguing and blocking the door?," an angry voice said behind us.

It was Celesta. Yay.

Except the expression on her face did not read "yay". It was more like "What the fuck are you two life ruiners doing here, piss off."

I'm glad you're so happy to see us Celesta.

"But I need to talk to you," I said. I glanced at James. "We both do."

"What makes you think I want to talk to you?," Celesta demanded.

"Everything," I muttered so that only James could hear, who gave me an amused grin.

Celesta's face darkened when she saw. "I don't want to talk to either of you. Get out of my sight."

"No." James took a step forward. "We have to talk, everything's just been a misunderstanding."

"Not for you," Celesta shot back. "I just don't want to talk to anyone, and you'll just have to deal with it."

"Celesta..." I could see both of them getting heated up. I grabbed James' arm and tried to pull him away.

"Leave it," I told him. I guess those were my peacemaking instincts I got from Dad kicking in.

"We can try talking to her some other time when she's cooled down," I said.

There was an awkward pause.

James cleared his throat. "We-I mean I, um, I should go to lunch."

He ran off towards the Great Hall. I wasn't hungry. Something about seeing Celesta acting so coldly towards me made me lose my appetite.

I have no idea why.

I replayed the conversation in my head.

 _"I don't want to talk to either of you. Get out of my sight."_

 _"No, we have to talk, everything's just been a misunderstanding."_

 _"Not for you. I just don't want to talk to anyone, and you'll just have to deal with it."_

 _"Celesta..."_

There was something wrong with the way he said her name.

At the time, I thought that he was angry. And so he was. But I thought he was angry because Celesta wasn't listening to me. It was why I was angry too. I had done nothing wrong. James did all the wrong things, not me.

James did all the wrong things.

He was the one who ditched Celesta. He was the one who lied and deceived. He was the one who asked me out, not caring that he had upset my cousin. His friend.

He was angry at Celesta because she wouldn't talk to him.

And he wanted to talk to her.

He's a dickhead. He just ditched her and he expects her to talk to him like nothing's wrong?!

Don't call your boyfriend a dickhead.

Okay, I shouldn't have done that. But seriously! Who does he think he is?!

And I realised.

He was James Sirius Potter, son of the Boy Who Lived. The Saviour or the Wizarding World.

I knew that before, obviously, but I had never realised fully the outcome of being a child of someone who was so famous and respected.

He was a fucking celebrity and he knew it.

And for the first time, I saw James for what he really was.

A fake.

A/N: Ok, I'm sorry if the ending wasn't clear but it's all in the next chapter so keep reading! PLEASE REVIEW :3


	15. Chapter 15: Realisation

Tamara's POV

James Potter was fake.

So fake I couldn't see his true personality because he had buried it deep down where no one could find it. Diminished it over the years so it was in the brink of existence.

He took advantage of his instant popularity, his dad's fame, made himself more popular, constantly getting new girlfriends because he knew that soppy magazines like Witch Weekly would take an interest and he liked his face on magazine pages. Covers. He never cared about any of the girls he took out, he just wanted to be even more well known than his father.

I doubt he ever liked me. He might have thought I was reasonably good looking but I think the only reason he ever wanted to date me is because my parents were famous too and even the Daily Prophet put in a small article about us when he first announced that we were boyfriend and girlfriend.

I felt sickened by him. None of the other Potters did this.

I couldn't believe I had liked him.

Wait, yes I could.

The James Potter that I had liked was his fake personality. The one who knew he was hot and famous and flirted with girls and made small talk with me.

And to think I was thinking I knew him well.

I feel a civil brain war coming on. A verbal one.

How do you know he's fake?

I can just tell! The way he said Celesta's name!

So you realized all that because he said one name?

Yes I did.

You're stupid.

So are you.

I'm pretty sure he's not fake.

I'm pretty sure he is.

He's not fake, he just takes advantage of his fame too much.

He dated me because my parents were famous and so he could be in the Daily Prophet!

He likes you!

Maybe a bit. But not really.

Remember what Rose told you?

Rose tells me lots of things.

She said once that James told her that he liked you!

No she didn't!

She did!

When?

I can't remember.

You should!

Well I can't!

So you've got no proof that she said it and you've got no proof that James likes me. So he doesn't.

He does too!

Doesn't!

Does!

Doesn't!

Does!

Break it up!

Is this a new part of my brain? Oh well. I'm not complaining.

I ran into the Great Hall to see if there was still lunch, after realizing how hungry I was. On instinct, the first thing I did was look for James, as that was what I had done for the past few weeks since we had started dating.

I saw him at the Hufflepuff table talking to Celesta and from the looks of things, she had forgiven him and they were chatting together amicably.

I headed towards them, wanting to talk to Celesta too so we could be on good terms again.

"Hey guys-" I cut off my sentence when I saw the two of them.

Or should I say pair.

A few seconds ago they had been talking.

Now they were snogging.

I stumbled back, hoping they hadn't heard me.

But they did.

James had let go of Celesta and both of them were staring at me, expecting the worst, terror written on their faces.

Was this their expected reaction from me?

My brain had frozen so I couldn't react but I knew it wouldn't be punching their faces and yelling at them.

I was surprised to find tears in my eyes as the reaction.

I thought I just said that I didn't like James anymore because he was so fake! Why am I crying?

Was it all wrong?

Partly was the only answer I could think of.

He wasn't fake. That was his true personality, with the lust for fame and everything.

Celesta could have him. I didn't want someone like that. I think I've known for a long time who I wanted.

Not James.

No, I know who specifically.

But that didn't stop the tears from flowing as I ran away from James and Celesta.

Together.

A/N: I know these chapters are short and I'm sorry if I did the heartbreak bit really badly. Next chapter will be good, I promise! Please keep reading and review ;)


	16. Chapter 16: The Heartbreak Part

"Tamara?" It was James. Probably pulling Celesta along because they were holding hands or something.

I kept walking.

"Tamara?" This time it was Celesta. She was probably jumping up and down with glee on the inside because she was basically guaranteed to become James' girlfriend. Maybe she already was.

I ignored them both and kept walking.

"Tamara!" It was Celesta again. I felt her hand close on my wrist. I whirled round to face both of them, yanking my wrist free from her grip.

I knew I had fresh tear stains on my cheeks and I didn't care. They should know what they did to me, even if I have no idea why I'm upset.

"You need to let us explain," Celesta said, seeming desperate. She looked close to tears herself and I almost considered forgiving her. But then the image of her and James kissing crept back into my mind and I hardened.

"Did you give me a chance to explain when I asked you?," I said, remembering the incident. "No, and it wasn't even my fault that time! How was I supposed to know James had lied to me?"

She didn't answer.

"But this is entirely different," I continued. "You were snogging my boyfriend! And you can say he started it but you didn't object, did you? You let him and now you expect me to let you explain?"

"No...," Celesta's voice was soft, I could barely hear her. "I just want you to give me another chance."

I wanted to. I did. And she looked so pitiful, her face now streaked with tears. But I was far from pitying other people at the moment. I was too busy pitying myself.

And then James went and put his arm round her and I knew that there couldn't be another chance, because they liked each other too much, they

were made for each other. I tried holding in my sob but I couldn't, and new tears sprang into my eyes, making my vision blurry.

Run, I thought. So I did. I ran, not to a particular place, but just trying to put as much space between me and them as possible. I felt a pang every time I had to refer to James and Celesta as "them", something between us was broken. But did James and I ever have something between us that was beyond friendship?

I was just another of his short term girlfriends. I think that he had liked me for a bit but then realised that he liked Celesta more.

Have I realised who I really liked yet?

Have I even met him?

I knew where I wanted to go now. Or rather, who I wanted to go to.

"Albus?" I pushed open the sixth year boys' dormitory door. Albus was sitting on one of the beds with Louis and Aaron Thomas, all three of them absorbed in an intense debate about one of the rules of Quidditch. They all fell into an awkward silence as soon as I came in.

"I told you I didn't want to-," Al us started saying to me angrily but broke off when he saw my face, which would probably still be covered in tear stains along with my eyes being red and puffy.

Ok, now go ask him to talk to you.

I cleared my throat.

"Albus, I, um..."

Merlin, what is wrong with me?

Tell him now or you might not get a chance again! My brain was screaming at me.

"I've got to talk to you," I said. "Privately."

Albus was looking uncertain, not sure whether he should come with me or not.

"Al, just go," Aaron told him, breaking the silence.

Albus got up, still looking unsure, and we went to the Common Room, which was nearly deserted except for a few first years who were reading quietly in a corner, because everyone was still at lunch.

"So, what did you want to talk about?," Albus asked me when we had sat down on a couch. I noticed that we were both sitting very close to each other.

Stop it, Tamara! Concentrate!

"Well," I said, not sure how to start. I took a deep breath, deciding to just get straight to the point.

"James and I broke up," I said, surprised at the matter-of-factly voice I told him in.

Albus stared at me. "You broke up?," he asked incredulously. "Why?"

"Well I kind of caught him, um, snogging someone," I said uncomfortably. I hoped he wouldn't ask who because it would make everything worse if I went into the details. Thankfully, Albus seemed to know not to ask.

"I'm sorry," he said. But I knew he wasn't.

"It's okay," I said. "I probably would have broken up with James anyway."

I did not need to tell him that.

At all.

"Why?," he asked. I knew he would ask.

"Because...," I hesitated.

I should just tell him I realised what a dickhead James was.

Which was true, but not the main reason.

Well it's not lying.

But it's still a loophole!

I can't tell him the truth though!

Yes you can and I really don't want another civil brain war so shut up.

Tell him the truth. Why you would have broken up with James anyway.

"Because I realised I liked someone else," I said. I felt just as shocked as Albus looked, I had never really registered that fact until I said it just now, but I think I've known it subconsciously for a long time now.

"I don't think I need to say who," I added. The answer was obvious, it hung in the air in front of us.

Someone should say the answer anyway.

No one?

Only Albus is the only one with me and I don't think he'll say it.

I edged even closer to Albus so that we were practically nose to nose, or as close to that as we could be with our height difference.

"Albus, I don't like James," I said. "I like you. I don't know what I did to make you so mad at me but I'm sorry and I just-" Albus stopped my stream of tumbling words and interrupted by pressing his lips to mine.

And everything was gone, it was just me and him, I felt the same kind of ecstatic electricity going through me when we had our first kiss, I never wanted to break away from him but I knew I would have to-

"Oi! Quit it you two! There are little kids here!"

I broke away from Albus reluctantly.

Ah, James. Perfect timing. We were just talking about you.

In a bad way.

You just had to break our moment.

"Jealous?," Albus smirked.

"Not particularly," James said sourly. I saw he was holding Celesta's hand. She gave me a tiny smile which I tried to return. Well I told my brain to but it somehow changed it into a glare.

"Albus, you can't just go snogging people in the Common Room, there are-"

"Don't call us little kids!," one of the first years yelled at him. I recognised her as Lavinia Ashton. "We aren't little and you're kids too!"

"Exactly," Albus said. "And you can't talk can you, because you were snogging in the Great Hall which has even more 'little kids' than here."

"Mind your own business, Al," James said, looking at me accusingly.

The little git.

"I had every right to tell him," I said angrily. "If you don't want other people to know, maybe you shouldn't do it!"

"I don't need you blabbing-" James started to say but I had lost my temper.

"YES YOU DO!," I screamed. "I WAS YOUR GIRLFRIEND! ALL OF THIS WAS YOUR FAULT! YOU CHEATED ON ME AND MADE OUT WITH MY COUSIN! DURO!" I pointed my wand at him. When did I even get it out?

I looked at James.

Oh no.

Holy.

Shit.

I should have used Serpensortia.

The spell I had used on James had turned him to stone.

A/N: Yay, another chapter! And Albus is speaking to Tamara again! Let me know what you think! PLEASE REVIEW :3


	17. Chapter 17: The Badger And The Lion

We all stared in shock at the statue that was James.

"What did you do to him?!," Celesta screamed at me. I backed away a few steps, alarmed.

"I just used a spell on him! I'm sure there's a counter-curse," I said.

"There isn't!," Celesta screamed, looking so panicked that she looked demented. Thinking about the reason why she was like this made me want to use Duro on her as well.

Then they could be statues standing side by side together and it would be so romantic.

I wanted to puke.

Albus spoke. "We know there isn't a counter-curse but the spell will wear off soon anyway."

"And what if it doesn't?," Celesta asked, still panicked.

"Then serves him right," I fired at her before Albus could do any more reassuring.

"How dare you-what did he ever do to you?," Celesta yelled.

"HE MADE OUT WITH YOU AND CHEATED ON ME!," I screamed at her. "Muffliato!" I pointed my wand at the first years because it had just occurred to me that they were able to hear everything we were saying. Or screaming.

"MAYBE THAT'S BECAUSE HE NEVER LIKED YOU!," she screamed back at me. This was too much. She had probably said it because she was so angry but it could be the truth, and I couldn't stand the idea of it.

"DURO!," I screamed, pointing my wand at her. She dodged it and the spell rocketed towards the window, smashing it.

"Reparo!," Albus said, quickly mending the window. "Cut it out, you two!" Neither of us payed any attention to him.

"Serpensortia!" A huge snake appeared and slithered towards me.

"Evanesco!" The snake vanished.

"STUPEFY!," Celesta screamed.

"INCENDIO!," I yelled at the same time. The two curses met, causing an explosion that threw both of us back. If there were people outside the Common Room, they would be able to hear.

"Muffliato!," I pointed my wand at the portrait, quickly getting to my feet. Celesta was quicker.

"Brachiabindo!," she said. Ropes appeared, wrapping themselves around me. They covered my hands so I couldn't free myself and we're now making their way up my neck.

"Let me go!," I yelled at Celesta. She looked at me with a cold calmness.

"No," she said.

"Albus!," I looked around for him. He had disappeared.

No one else could hear us because I had put Muffliato on everyone.

I suddenly remembered that I was still holding my wand. I would have to do it now because the ropes were now wrapping themselves around my chin.

"Emancipare!" The ropes fell and I was free.

"Expelliarmus!," I said, before Celesta could act. Her wand flew through the air. I caught it with my left hand. Now that I had two wands and Celesta had none, I didn't know what to do.

"Levicorpus!, I thought, pointing both wands at her, and she was lifted off the ground and hung high up, suspended by her ankle.

"No! Let me down!," Celesta screamed. Her face was slowly turning red as the blood went to her head.

"Libracorpus!" She landed on the floor with a thud, but got up quickly.

What should I do now?, I thought.

I was sorely tempted to make her face be covered in boils, but then she would go to the Hospital Wing, she would tell on me and I would get detention for the rest of the year, not to mention the Howlers I would get from Mum.

"Petrificus Totalus!," I said, and her arms snapped to her sides, as she fell to the floor, her body all rigid.

"Obscuro!," I said. A blindfold appeared over her eyes, so she couldn't see anything.

"Tamara!" I whipped around, terrified someone had saw and would go and tell, but it was only Albus.

"Albus! Where did you go?," I asked him.

He didn't reply, he just took something from his pocket. The Invisibility Cloak. I took it from him.

"Perfect, do you mind if I use this?," I asked.

"No," he said. "But what do you need it for?" He followed my gaze to Celesta and James, who were quite close to each other even under the different curses I had put on both of them.

I went up to them and put the Cloak on James, then stretching it so it could cover Celesta. It was too small, though and I could still see half of Celesta. Which was creepy.

"Engorgio," I said to the Cloak. It became larger so I could cover Celesta properly.

"Why don't you just put a Disillusionment Charm on them?," Albus asked me.

"Because it only makes them blend in with the environment," I explained. "You would still be able to see their outlines. Also because I don't know how to do it," I admitted.

"I'll teach you," Albus said, grinning at me. I saw his face change as the smile disappeared from his face.

"What?," I asked him.

"The Cloak doesn't stop them from being solid," he said. I understood what he was saying now. "What if someone bumps into James or trips over your cousin?"

Before I could reply or think of a solution to the problem, we both heard a sound of movement from where James and Celesta were.

"Celesta?" It was James. The charm had worn off and he was no longer stone.

"Run," Albus hissed at me, and we both took off, Albus running towards his dormitory and me running towards mine.

I threw open the dormitory door, gasping. Rose was reading a book that looked like her textbook for Arithmancy and Ariadne was lying on her bed writing what was probably the Felix Felicis essay Slughorn had set us while listening to one of those IPod things that Muggles always use.

Rose looked up when I entered.

"What's going on? Did I miss something?," she asked me.

I didn't feel like telling her what had happened. How would I tell her anyway? "Oh you didn't miss anything, I just turned your cousin into stone and put the Body-Bind Curse on my cousin and now it's worn off so that's why I was running?" A great conversation starter.

"Where's Violetta?," I asked, hoping to change the subject.

"Don't change the subject," Rose said sternly, "she went to see Louis. Anyway, where were you? I didn't see you at lunch."

Still avoiding her question, I said "Louis? Are they dating now?"

Rose frowned at me. "What happened? Seriously, tell me!"

"Um..." I stopped. How should I tell her? She would definitely be mad. Maybe if she saw the whole thing, I wouldn't have to talk. It wouldn't make her any more madder.

"If you come to Albus's dorm with me, you'll see," I said. James would have gone to Albus's dorm by now, as he wasn't able to enter the girls' dormitories.

Rose got up from her bed, and we went to the boys' dorms, with me running ahead. I was worried about Albus. Would James blame everything that had happened in him?

No, he wouldn't, he saw me fire the spell at him, he would know that it was me.

But what would he do to me then?

A/N: I'm so sorry, I seem to have gotten into a habit of ending in cliffhangers, but don't worry, I have the next chapter written already. PLEASE REVIEW :3


	18. Chapter 18: The Final Duel

There was the sound of blasts and explosions as Rose and I approached the dorm. This would not be good.

"Do a Disillusionment Charm," I said to Rose.

"When are you ever going to learn that Charm?," Rose asked, pretending to be annoyed as she rapped me in the head with her wand. I felt that trickly feeling as if there was water running down my body.

"Why should I if I have you and Violetta to do it for me?," I said. "And anyway, it's not like I need to use that Charm every day."

We were both human chameleons now. I opened the door a crack. Louis had sided with Albus, Fred Weasley with James. Aaron Thomas was also there, he was trying to stop the four of them duelling, with Celesta. The two of them were casting Shield Charms in between them.

"...How can you defend her?," James was saying.

Well I totally don't know who he's talking about. Because it's totally not obvious it's me.

"James, please don't," Celesta begged.

I was surprised. Had she forgiven me? Technically, all I had done to her was put a Body-Bind Curse in her, and I think I had a right to, in the circumstances. I was angry. But maybe she hasn't forgiven me. Maybe she just didn't want anyone to duel because she didn't want to see cousins duelling each other. Like me.

Maybe she just wanted everything to be peaceful.

Unlike me.

I was still angry at James.

I wanted to duel him myself.

"I can defend her and I will," Albus shouted back at James. "Stupefy!"

The curse was meant to be for James, but it missed and hit Fred, who didn't have time to cast a Shield Charm and collapsed.

"Albus, stop," Aaron said. "Protego!" The Shield Charm stopped everyone from duelling but only briefly.

I turned to Rose, about to ask her what we should do, but she had disappeared. I spotted her in the dorm, by Fred.

"Rennervate," she said, pointing her wand at him. He began to stir, and Rose turned to me, beckoning me in. I shrugged and crept in as quietly as I could.

"You cheated on her!," Albus was now saying. "She had every right to be angry at you!"

If only they knew I was here.

"SHE TURNED ME INTO STONE!," James roared. "Do you even know what that's like? Duro!"

"Protego!," I said, furious. I didn't care whether they now knew I was there, James had tried to turn Albus into stone. Just because he was defending me. I felt a white-hot anger at James.

"Expelliarmus!" James's wand flew out of its confused owner's hand, I caught it.

"Serpensortia!," I screamed, pointing both wands at him. "SECTUM-"

"NO! STOP!" It was Rose. She was fully visible now, which meant that I was too. James had already seen me.

"Give me back my wand!," he spat at me. I tossed him the wand, still furious. It didn't poke him in the face, as I had hoped.

"Tamara, this isn't why we came here," Rose said sternly. "Did you really turn James into stone?"

"I-yes," I admitted.

"Tamara!" She looked outraged.

"He cheated on me and made out with Celesta!," I shouted.

Rose turned to James. "Have you got anything to say? Do you deny it?"

James glared at me, then at Rose. "Yes," he said.

Celesta gasped, Rose narrowed her eyes. I had lost control. He had made out with my cousin, and now he had denied it. I was even angrier than I had been when James had tried turning Albus to stone. I wanted to rip him to shreds, to torture him, I wanted to use the Cruciatus Curse on him. It was illegal and I thought of what had happened the last time a student had used an Unforgivable Curse.

"Stupefy!," I screamed. James dodged, it bounced of the wall and rocketed out of a window that had already been broken, probably as a result of the previous duel.

"Sectumsempra!," I yelled.

"Protego!" Celesta's Shield Charm protected James.

"Tamara do not use dark magic!," Rose barked.

"You can't tell me what spells not to use!," I screamed, feeling deranged with anger. "Sectumsempra!"

"Protego!" Celesta cast another Shield Charm.

"Stop it!," I yelled. "This is not your duel! Silencio!" Celesta fell silent, though her mouth was still mouthing protests.

"Don't you dare! Stupefy!," James shouted. "Sectumsempra! Petrificus Totalus!"

The three spells came almost at the same time, in a line. I grabbed a book from the shelf I was standing in front of and threw it in front of the curses. There was hardly any space between the three curses, they all hit the book, which exploded, leaving torn pieces of paper everywhere.

"Locomotor Mortis!," I fired back at James. He used a Shield Charm to stop it.

I was annoyed to no end that none of my curses were hitting him. "Expelliarmus!" I pointed my wand at Celesta, whose wand flew out of her hand. I caught it. I didn't care I that made this an unfair duel, I had to do as much damage to James as I could.

"Serpensortia! Sectumsempra! Stupefy!," I screamed, pointing both wands at James.

James couldn't cast six Shield Charms, but Aaron helped too, even Rose.

"Tamara you can't do that it's not fair!," Rose yelled, over the blasts.

"Expelliarmus!" Rose's wand flew towards James, who caught it.

"James how dare you in trying to help you!," Rose screamed at him.

James paid her no attention. "Stupefy!," he bellowed.

"Protego!," I said quickly. The four spells met.

"Stupefy!"

"Protego! Sectumsempra!"

"Serpensortia!"

"Evanesco!"

"Stupefy!"

"Stupefy!"

"Sectumsempra!"

Both of us now had two wands, but that made no difference whatsoever. James cursed and hexed, while I dodged and weaved between the spells, while firing back my own, but none of us had been hit yet. Aaron had given up casting Shield Charms between us, and was now standing next to Albus and Louis, watching. Celesta and Rose were standing together, both wandless, both with hard expressions on their faces. Fred had unwittingly been accidentally hit by a Stunning Spell again and no one has bothered to go and revive him.

James and I both stood there, panting, no one shooting curses for the one being.

Taking advantage of James not on guard, I fired a curse at him.

"Sectumsempra!," I said.

"Sectumsempra!," he said at the same time.

The four curses met, it was as if someone had directed them to each other, creating a colossal explosion. The noise was deafening and I thought of all the people who would be able to hear and would come rushing.

Shit.

"Obscuro!" I felt cloth wrapping around my eyes. Then I felt another layer of cloth wrapping itself around my eyes. I tried to unfold the blindfolds but the knots were big and too tight.

Oh wait, I could use my wands.

"Expelliarmus!" Both of my wands were blasted out of my hands.

Now I couldn't.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

Oh God.

What was James going to do to me now? Throw something at me?

I felt something big and round hitting me, the force sending me sprawling on the ground. It rolled over my left arm and I heard a sickening crunch as pain flooded my arm, and I couldn't stop myself from yelling out.

I had lost the duel. I couldn't see, I didn't have a wand and my arm was most probably broken.

I backed into the shelf, and I realised that I could use my hands. I seized a book from the shelf and threw it in the direction of James.

"Protego!" There was the sound of an explosion, which meant that James had blew it up. I grabbed two more books and flung them at James.

"Petrificus Totalus!" My body went stiff so I couldn't move it, my arms and legs snapped together, making me lose my balance and toppling over, face down.

It was not comfortable.

Now I know how Celesta felt when I did this to her. I find it funny how it was my boyfriend who did this to me.

Well, ex-boyfriend, I think our duel was our breaking up.

I was getting really uncomfortable lying face down on the floor and seeing nothing but black, and the blindfolds were now digging into my eyes. I felt another wave of hot pain in my arm. I had to get to the Hospital Wing. I tried calling out but my mouth would not move. I could still use my voice though, so I screamed and yelled through my closed mouth.

"Tamara?" It was Albus's voice. I yelled through my mouth.

"Finite!" The stiffness in my body was gone, though I was still blind. I got up.

"And my eyes too, Albus," I said.

"Incendio!" My head felt hot suddenly. Too hot. There was a sizzling sound.

"Albus you've set my head on fire!," I shrieked.

"Aguamenti! Aguamenti!" I felt the fire extinguishing, but my hair was now sopping wet.

"You idiot," I said to Albus.

"Wrong spell," Albus said. I could hear the laughter in his voice. "It's your punishment for blowing up my books. Diffindo!" The blindfolds fell apart. I blinked in the sudden brightness

"Sorry," I said, rubbing my eyes, "were those books yours?"

"Yes," Albus said, sounding a bit annoyed, "one of them was my new copy of Quidditch Through The Ages!"

"What happened to your old one?," I asked, now massaging my eyelids.

"Louis blew it up and then you threw my new one in front of a Dark curse and blew it up too," Albus said, though I could tell he found the situation hilarious.

"I'll buy you another one," I said, squinting.

I suddenly remembered something-

"Where's my wand?," I asked Albus, after my eyes had adjusted to the light.

"Over here somewhere," Albus said. He led me to where everyone else was grouped. "It's with the other wands James took."

Apparently I was the only one who had remembered to get their wand back. Celesta and Rose's wands were lying next to mine, along with James's. I bent down, examining how they all looked together.

Rose's wand was a dark chocolate brown maple, the darkest, with a core of dragon heartstring. I couldn't tell, but she had told me. It had little intricate carvings in it, and was quite long and thin, making it look elegant and regal.

Celesta's wand had the lightest colour with a wood of hazel, and I knew it also had a core of dragon heartstring. It was of a medium length, and had more wood entwining itself around the base.

I peered at James's. It was short, the shortest out of all four of them, he had told me his wand properties before: cherry and unicorn hair, he was the only one out of the four to have a unicorn hair core. His wand had a sort of reddish tinge to it, it didn't have much on it, just a few engravings, making it look a bit like a chopstick, but much more powerful.

I picked up my wand, and as I did so, I felt that warmth in my fingers that I had grown to love. My wand was long (I think it's 12 inches but I can't remember, to be honest), even longer than Rose's and was the only one out of the four with a phoenix feather core. The wood was alder wood, which was twisted at the base to make a grip.

"You've been staring at those wands for five minutes, anyone would think you studied wandlore," I heard Albus saying. I picked up all the wands.

"Maybe that's because I do," I joked.

"Tamara! Pass me my wand, will you?" It was Rose, she was sitting on the floor, kneeling over James, who had apparently passed out.

I threw her wand to her. She missed it, it rolled away until she picked it up.

"Smooth," Albus sniggered. She glared at him.

"What happened to James?," I asked. He looked dead.

Or maybe it was the position he was lying in.

"Your book knocked him out," Aaron said. He didn't seem particularly sorry, he was standing over James's head, looking at it with distaste.

"Rennervate, Rennervate, Rennervate!," Celesta said, desperately pointing it at James. He didn't move.

"Here let me try," Fred said, pointing his wand at James. "Rennervate."

Nothing happened.

"Why isn't it working?," Louis asked.

"What if he's for concussion?," Rose said worriedly.

"It will just be like a broken bone, don't worry, Madam Pomfrey will be able to fix it in seconds," I said, trying to comfort her.

I felt terrible. Everyone was now panicking, and it was all because of me. What if James really had concussion? What if Madam Pomfrey couldn't fix it? What if he died? The Potters would hate me forever. The Weasleys too. I would lose Rose, lose Albus, Violetta would think me a terrible human being, and I would lose her too. It would be all over the Prophet, my family would find out, I would be shunned by everyone for the rest of my life and I would be sent to Azkaban, where I could join Mattheo Flint.

I felt a warm hand on my shoulder. I looked up to see Albus's face. He gave me a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry," he said, "he'll be alright."

"What if he isn't? What if he can't get better? What if he dies?," I said, voicing all my worries.

"You know, I was under the impression that you and James weren't getting along," Albus said.

"We aren't," I replied. "But that doesn't mean I want him dead." My arm was hurting again. I clutched it, wincing.

"What happened?," Albus asked, concerned.

"I think my arm's broken," I said.

"You think?," Albus said. He took it, feeling it. "Nope, it's definitely broken."

"Thanks, I appreciate the confirmation," I said.

"Shall I fix it for you?," Albus asked.

"Do you know how?," I asked sceptically.

"I think so," he said. I looked at him uncertainly.

"It won't do you any more pain I it doesn't work," he said.

I sighed, and held out my arm. He pointed his wand at it.

"Episkey!"

"AARGH!"

It hadn't worked. There was another crunch as my arm exploded with pain.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!," Albus said.

"Remind me to never let you use magic on me again," I said, gasping. "First you set my head on fire and now you've broken my arm in another place."

"I'll remind you," Albus said with mock sincerity.

I couldn't help but laugh.

"Any luck?," Albus said suddenly. I realised he wasn't talking to me.

I looked at Rose and the others, who were all still desperately trying to revive James.

"We should just take him to Madam Pomfrey," I said. "If you've all tried and it hasn't worked, it probably won't."

"What will we say happened?," Fred asked.

"Nothing," I said simply. "She never asks questions."

"And what about the people who we'll meet on the way?," Albus asked.

"I was under the impression that you knew how to do Disillusionment Charms," I said, fighting to keep a straight face.

Albus laughed.

"Yes, this arm is broken," Madam Pomfrey said, examining my arm. She felt it. "It's broken in two places." She pointed her wand at my arm and I felt it mend.

"There," she said, "I've fixed it but I still think you ought to stay the night."

"What? No!," I said. Absolutely no. "You've fixed my arm, can't I leave?"

Madam Pomfrey glared at me. "You will stay the night or you will tell me how you managed to break your arm twice, and how this young man-" she indicated to James, who was lying in a bed nearby-"managed to get concussion."

"Concussion? Can you fix it though?," I asked quickly.

"Of course I can fix it but he will also have to stay the night, particularly as he hasn't even woken yet." She sniffed. "Now get into bed."

"Why?," I said, furiously.

"You need rest, you can change into those." A nightgown appeared on the bed.

I went to the bed and put it on, fuming, then climbed into the bed.

"We've come to see Tamara," I heard Rose saying.

"Absolutely not, she needs rest," Madam Pomfrey said.

I turned over, kicking the blankets, feeling even worse.

"It's your own fault, you shouldn't have duelled me," James said. I hadn't noticed him waking up.

I glared at him. "Shut up," I snapped. "It's your fault too."

A/N: PLEASE REVIEW :3


	19. Chapter 19: Awkward Apologies

"I really don't think this is the solution."

"Shut up, it's the only way."

"Is it?"

I opened my eyes, blinking several times. It was morning, though quite early I think, seeing as the curtains hadn't been drawn yet so it was still dark. There were two figures standing by the bed beside me, though my eyes were still blurred so I couldn't make out who it was.

Instinct told me to keep still and pretend to still be asleep, because the two figures were probably Rose and Violetta and they were talking in hushed tones. Which meant that whatever they were talking about thy didn't want us to hear.

Who's us?

I was confused. I could see clearly now and I saw that it was Rose and Violetta there. Violetta was looking doubtful and worried while Rose had a look of determination on her face as she took her wand out, brandishing it like a knife.

"Will it even work if we Obliviate them while they're asleep?," Violetta asked.

"Of course it will, stop worrying," Rose replied.

"I really don't see the point of this," Violetta said. "Why can't we just tell Tamara and James to apologise to each other, rather than Obliviating them?"

Rose turned to her, glaring. "Because," she said, "do you really think they'll apologise? It will be really awkward if they both come to my house."

"It's not like it wasn't awkward before," Violetta muttered.

"Shut up, we have to do this," Rose said, turning to face the bed again.

Which James was lying in.

I may have hated him but it didn't mean I wanted us both to get Obliviated. Shock was pounding through me that Rose thought this was the solution. If this was the alternative, I would definitely just apologise. Honestly, I didn't even know Rose could be that stupid.

She thought Obliviating was the solution? It was almost laughable.

I grabbed my wand, which was lying on the bedside table next to me, pointing it between Rose and James.

"Do it then," Violetta said to Rose.

I steadied my wand, preparing myself for it. If I didn't time it right, it would go all wrong.

Three.

Two.

One.

"Obliviate!"

"Protego!"

"What the fuck is going on?!"

"Tamara!"

"Lumos!"

The light was coming from Violetta's wand, illuminating the whole room. I saw that James was now awake (probably woken by the Obliviate spell), Rose was looking at me angrily and Violetta just looked relieved that James and I hadn't got our memories wiped.

"What was that for?," Rose said to me.

"What was what for?," I said, trying unsuccessfully to pretend to be innocent. Which failed terribly as I was holding a wand in my hand and no one sleeps with a wand in their hand. Unless they grabbed it while they were asleep but still.

"You know what!," Rose shouted. Violetta quickly cast a Muffliato. "Your fucking Shield Charm!"

If Rose swears, she is usually quite angry.

"What makes you think that Obliviate was a good idea?," I asked coldly.

"Would you apologise?," Rose said, in her I-just-won-the-argument-so-ha tone. Except she hadn't. For once.

"I wouldn't but if this was what I would have had to face instead, then yes!," I said.

"Right, you can do it now then," Rose said.

Argument lost.

Shit.

I was not prepared for that.

"We'll give you two some privacy," Rose said, smirking at the look on my face.

"Use protection!," Violetta sang, as they headed towards the door. Rose laughed.

"Yeah, don't get pregnant!," she called back.

"Just because I'm alone in a room with him it doesn't mean I'll have sex with him!," I yelled.

The door slammed.

"..."

"..."

Awkward silence.

I'll break it.

"So," I said, awkwardly. It was supposed to be loud but it wasn't. James looked at me. He took out his wand and drew back the curtains.

"It's dark," he said, shrugging.

"..."

"..."

More awkward silence.

I'll break it again.

"We're kind of supposed to be apologising," I said.

"Ok, then, I'm sorry for being a shit boyfriend and making out with your cousin and then breaking your arm with a cauldron," James said. "Done. Your turn."

"Oh right...okay then." I cleared my throat. I decided to be like James and apologise for everything in his careless way. "I'm sorry for being a shit girlfriend and not realising you didn't like me then getting mad at you and turning you to stone and then throwing a book at you and causing you to get concussion." I paused. "God that sounded stupid."

"Mine did too, they'll never know," James said. He held out his hand, to my surprise. "Friends?"

I laughed. "I guess." I reached out my hand.

God damn it I couldn't reach.

"I can't reach," I said, surprised to find myself laughing.

This is not how apologies are supposed to be.

James stretched his hand a bit more. Still couldn't reach.

We both stretched until we were both in danger of toppling out of our beds and laughing so hard that we eventually did fall out.

James got up first, offering me his hand. I grinned. I took it and heaved myself up, but my legs did a spasm and collapsed.

"Well done, should we get you a wheelchair?," James said, smirking.

"Oh God no, I would rather break my leg," I said.

"That can be arranged," James said, getting his wand.

"I'm good, thanks," I said with a laugh.

"James?! What the fuck is going on?!"

"Nothing," James said, hastily dropping my hand.

Celesta glared at me. I glared back at her. And maybe kicked her. But no one needs worry about that.

"I see you two have made up," she said, raising her eyebrows.

"Have you got a problem with that?," I said, raising my eyebrows too.

"Why would I? I don't care," she said, with a slight sneer.

"No, but why do you care so much about 'what the fuck is going on?'," I asked, doing quotation marks with my fingers.

James cleared his throat. "Maybe you should go, Celesta," he said.

Celesta turned on him. "Yes, so you two can go at it?," she said resentfully.

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!

She thinks James and I are...Oh my fucking God.

That is weird.

And retarded.

AS FUCK.

What the hell is wrong with everyone today?! Why is everyone acting so stupid?!

First Rose wanted to Obliviate us and now Celesta thinks James and I are 'going at it.'

Ew.

I would never do that with James.

Even if I was married to him.

Well I would but I would never marry him. Like ever.

"We are definitely not 'going at it', and if you don't believe us you're stupid," I told Celesta. "Besides, why do you care so much? It's not like you have more right to do it than me."

This was true because James and I hadn't actually had a proper breakup yet so Celesta was kinda still the girl chasing after the love of her life.

James looked down, ashamed, and Celesta went pink. I'm sure we were all thinking of when I had found Celesta snogging James.

Meaning that she didn't really need to chase him anymore. James already liked her. I was just friends with him.

"I'm sorry," Celesta said suddenly.

I looked up at her, startled. "What?," I said.

"I said I'm sorry," Celesta said, louder this time.

"Oh." I didn't know what to say. "I'm sorry too. I guess."

"Really?" She looked at me suspiciously.

"For, you know, hexing you and stuff." I shrugged.

"Oh, well.." Celesta looked lost for words. "Well I guess I forgive you." She smiled.

"Okay...well I forgive you too then," I said.

"..."

"..."

"..."

That last one was from James.

I don't even know why.

There have been way too many awkward silences again.

Well three but I've had to break it two times.

I can't be arsed to break it again. Someone else can break it.

"..."

"..."

"..."

No one is breaking it. That's awkward. I mean, even more awkward.

"..."

The door opened.

"Rose," I said. "Hi."

"Hey," she said. She smirked at the three of us. "Still virgins?"

I hit her on the arm. "Duh," I said.

"That really hurt," she said, rubbing her arm in false pain.

I snorted. "Panda can cause you more pain than that," I said.

"Yeah, but that's because Violetta never cuts his nails, he scratched me once and I had to go to Madam Pomfrey because my hand was bleeding so badly." But I wasn't listening anymore. I had seen someone by the door, who caused me to smirk at Rose.

"What?," she said.

"Still a virgin?," I teased, copying her words.

"Um...yeah...why?," Rose asked, looking anxious suddenly.

"Scorpius," I said. It was him standing by the door.

"So?," Rose said.

Merlin, if this isn't a game Rose really has gone stupid.

I rolled my eyes. "You've been on a fucking date with him Rose, you don't have to be so defensive and hushed up."

"You went on a date with him?!," James said. He hugged Rose. "Oh my God, congratulations Rosie, that may be the first date you've ever been on." Rose was beetroot. I saw Scorpius back away from the door.

Ha, he probably thought we were all mad.

Which we probably were.

Except Rose. And Celesta. And-no, that's it.

"Okay, you can go join your boyfriend now," James said, letting Rose go.

"He's not my boyfriend," Rose muttered, still scarlet as she headed towards the door.

"Yet," I added. Celesta laughed.

The door opened again, and Albus stepped in this time.

"Hi Albus," I greeted him.

"Can you come?," he told me. I got up and followed him out the door, shutting it behind me.

"What do you think of James?," Albus asked, getting straight to the point.

It wasn't what I was expecting and I was confused. "What? Why?," I asked.

Albus looked at me, irritated. "I just want to know," he said.

"Bullshit," I returned.

"You don't get to decide what's bullshit and what's not," Albus said. I could tell he was getting angry.

Not that I really cared.

"I do if I know it's total bullshit, like this is," I said. "It won't kill you to let me know the real reason you want to know what I think of James."

"This is the real reason!," Albus said stubbornly.

"No it's not. Is it because you're jealous?" I smirked at him.

"I don't-I'm not-why would I be jealous?," Albus said, going red.

"You're red," I informed him. This made him even redder.

"And now you're even redder," I told him. "Stop being a tomato, it almost looks as bad on you as it does with Rose."

"Scarlet."

"Beetroot."

"Wow, you actually look worse than Rose does," I said. This was too fun, as I stood there telling Albus he looked like a tomato as he went beetroot.

"Stop telling me I looked like a scarlet beetroot!," Albus said. He was still beetroot.

"I'm not," I said innocently. "I said you were scarlet and I said you were beetroot but I never said you look like a scarlet beetroot. Okay, you look like a scarlet beetroot now," I added.

"Stop it," I said. "None of this is even embarrassing or making you angry."

"Apart from you telling me I look like a vegetable," Albus said, his face back to its normal colour now.

"Your face does," I corrected him.

"Thanks, that's so much better," Albus said sarcastically.

"So...why did you want to talk to me again?," I asked, remembering.

"I asked you what you thought of James, and you disagreeing somehow led to us talking about beetroots," Albus said.

"Because your face is abnormally weird and was not doing what you wanted it to do," I added on.

"So what do you think of James?," Albus asked again.

"We're friends, he's...nice, ish I think, well-why is this relevant?," I asked, annoyed as Albus began to snigger at me flushing.

"Because I'm making it relevant," Albus replied, which was as helpful as shit. "But would you still want to, like, date him?" He looked a bit nervous.

I scowled at him. "No!," I said, repulsed.

"Okay then, who do you want to go with then?," Albus asked.

I peered at him suspiciously, still not sure why he was asking all this.

I could tell him I wanted to go with him.

But this could be another prank where both Freds were included, which would be awful if I told him.

"That is not your business," I said eventually. "If you tell me why you're asking all of this, maybe I will tell you because you want to know, don't you?" I smiled innocently at Albus.

Albus glared at me, pinch in his lips together. "Okay," he said, "let's just say that I wanted to know that if I asked you on a date, you wouldn't go on a date with James the next trip."

Oh.

Well.

I don't even know what to say now.

Well I'm happy because Albus wants to go on a date with me and I want to go on a date with him.

SO YOU SAY YOU WANT TO GO ON A DATE WITH HIM!, someone yelled in my brain.

Weird, it sounded like Rose.

"Right," I said. "I'll tell you who I want to go to Hogsmeade with."

"Who?," Albus asked.

"Well, you." I looked down. That was embarrassing.

"Brilliant! Can you come to Hogsmeade next week with me then?"

"I'll come," I said, grinning. "But I think it's the week after the next."

"Whatever," Albus said impatiently. "You won't go and find another date for the one after will you?"

"No," I said, feeling my cheeks heat, "who else would I want to go with?"

"Oh, I don't know, Louis?," Albus suggested.

I raised an eyebrow. "He's dating Violetta," I said. "Or at least I think they're dating."

"Whatever, the point is that you won't go on a date with someone else after I've taken you, will you?," Albus asked me.

So this was what he wanted to ask me.

It might explain why he got so mad at me when I told him I was going on a date with James.

I smiled at Albus. "Of course I won't," I said.

A/N: I'm sorry I haven't really been updating! I've just been a bit busy going back to school and all that stuff and I couldn't really be bothered but I will try to get at least one chapter a week so please keep reading this story! Remember to review :)


	20. Chapter 20: Hogsmeade Again

"Are you going to help me or not?," I asked Violetta.

"Yes, wait! Just a second!," she said, before returning to frantically apply blush.

I sighed. "Rose, what should I wear?," I asked.

"I don't know...," she said, absent-mindedly. "Tamara, do you think this hairstyle looks good on me?"

She had it in a ridiculously high bun.

"No," I replied irritably. "It looks stupid, just do a braid or something."

"Oh alright," Rose said, using her wand to braid her bushy red hair.

I'm panicking slightly now. I'm going on a date with Albus Potter in half an hour and I'm still standing in my pyjamas because I don't know what to wear.

What did I wear last time?

I honestly can't remember.

And let's face it, who wears the same clothes every date?

I know this is my second date with Albus but I still feel nervous, since loads of stuff happened since our lay date, so that this actually feels like our first one.

So naturally, I want to look good.

I have nothing that is not too casual and not too formal but still looks good.

Well I have loads of skirts but I don't feel like wearing them. I know I'm being stupid and stubborn.

Maybe stupidness and stubbornness are contagious and Fred infected me. He definitely falls into the stupid category.

I went through all my clothes again, looking for something I could wear. Nothing.

GOD. DAMNIT.

I can ask Ariadne for help.

"Ariadne, can you help...?" My voice trailed off as I saw her all dressed up but pacing the room desperately.

"Keep calm, keep calm, keep calm," she muttered.

"That's not really going to help, you know," I called to her.

Honestly, I never took her to be the panicky type.

But it's her first date ever so I suppose she has good reason.

And might I add that her date is with my brother. I had to stop myself from puking on Ariadne when she first told me.

I decided I should just wear my light blue jeans, even though they were super ripped.

So much for not too casual.

Well at least I'm not wearing my sweatpants or something.

There were only 20 minutes left as I checked my watch. I quickly threw on a random shirt and put on my trainers.

I'm sorry, but trainers are comfortable and if there's an apocalypse and we're all attacked by Inferi, I will die because I'm wearing high heels that I can't run in.

Ha, I don't even have high heels.

The door opened, and Celesta walked in.

She was going to Hogsmeade with James, and looked annoyingly gorgeous, with her blonde hair hanging down in waves.

"Are you guys still not ready?," she asked. She spotted me. "You're seriously going to wear that?"

"Shut up," I snapped. "It's not against the law to wear ripped jeans on a date. I changed the subject. "How did you get in here anyway?"

Celesta looked down at her feet.

"Someone-someome, like, kinda let me in," she mumbled.

"Obviously," I snorted. "Who?"

"James," Rose said suddenly. She had finished getting ready and was sitting on her bed. "Last night."

"Last night?" I raised my eyebrows. "Why would you-" I realized suddenly. "Oh. You slept with him?"

Rose rolled her eyes at my bluntness.

"No," Celesta said quickly.

"You did," I said. I felt like she should be told off. A lot. Even though I don't tell people off. "How could you? You're sixteen! You aren't even of age!"

"I'm sorry!," Celesta cried. She looked desperate and paranoid. "Please don't tell Mum," she said, in a hushed tone.

"Mm..." I pretended to be considering while Celesta looked scared for her life. "Fine," I said.

Celesta looked extremely relieved. "How did Rose know?," I asked.

"I had to borrow a book from James and I walked in just as they were...you know," Rose said.

"Ok then...," I said. I cleared my throat awkwardly. "I need to do my makeup."

"You haven't even brushed your hair yet," Violetta pointed out. "You might want to do that first.

I looked at her, all made up and looking lovely. "Are you done too?!," I cried desperately.

She was going to Hogsmeade with Louis. Rose was going to Hogsmeade with Scorpius.

Everyone was ready except me.

I grabbed my hairbrush and started brushing my hair as quickly as I could.

Maybe Albus wouldn't care if I was late.

Who am I kidding, of course he would care.

As I scraped my hair into a ponytail, I felt something soft and cool wrapping itself around my neck. Celesta was wrapping one of her scarves around my neck. She smiled at my puzzled look.

"It looks good on you, okay?," she said.

"It's yours," I said a bit stupidly. She shrugged.

"Early Christmas present," she said, beaming at me.

"Thanks, but it's November," I said, though I kept the scarf on. It was turquoise and really pretty and felt comforting around my neck.

"Talking about November," Celesta said, more seriously, hands in her hips, "are you really going to go out dressed in just that?"

I looked down, realising I only had a shirt on and nothing else.

"What would you do without me?," Celesta said, grinning.

"I would get Rose to remind me when I'm being stupid," I retorted.

"What about me?," Violetta demanded. "I'm not stupid either."

"Of course not," I said, making a sarcastic joke.

"Guys," Ariadne spoke, having calmed down. "We have ten minutes left."

Oh God.

And I don't even have outer clothing on, let alone make up.

Celesta seemed to have read my thoughts, because she shoved a black winter coat into my arms and grabbed a woollen hat from my wardrobe, cramming it in my head.

"Quickly, put the coat on!," she said. "Forget make up." I put it on gingerly, doing the buttons up.

"How do I look?," I asked uncertainly. I felt like the odd one out, the only person in the room without make up on.

"Brilliant," Rose said quickly. "Now let's go."

We all went down to the Main Hall together, where our said dates were waiting. My stomach did a weird flip when I saw Albus, I don't know why. He was just looking particularly attractive.

I was getting a bit self conscious about the way I looked.

"Hi," I greeted him nervously.

"Hi," he said, "how are you?"

I stared at him, forgetting about my lack of mascara and burst out laughing the same time as Albus.

"Why-are-you-even-laughing?," Albus gasped.

"I don't know," I said, half laughing. "Stupid question."

"It wouldn't really have been, a few weeks ago," Albus said seriously. We were now walking towards Hogsmeade.

You mean the time when you were ignoring me and Rose was ignoring me and Violetta was ignoring me.

"I don't know what you're talking about, I thought life was great a few weeks ago," I said.

"Whatever you say," Albus said.

Yes, whatever I say.

"Why were you ignoring me?," I asked.

"I wasn't," Albus lied.

"Like hell you weren't," I said. "I'm not stupid."

"I was under a different impression," Albus joked.

"Excuse me?" I pretended to be offended. "Not to brag or anything, but I am a lot smarter than you."

I really wasn't.

"You aren't!," Albus protested.

"Yeah, it's called sarcasm." I rolled my eyes. "But maybe you haven't heard of it before, not many people have."

Albus snorted at that. I grinned.

"Answer my question then," I said.

"Why I was mad at you?," Albus asked. I nodded. "I'm not going to tell you."

"You are," I said, knowing it would have a big effect on him. I was right.

Albus pinched his lips together. I could tell he was debating whether to tell me or not.

"You'll think it's stupid," he said at last.

Seriously?!

"For God's sake, I don't give a fucking rat's arse! Just tell me!," I exploded.

Albus looked shocked at my sudden outburst. I looked away awkwardly, feeling my face go red.

"Um...sorry," I muttered.

It took Albus a few seconds to realize that I was talking to him.

"What? Oh, right, well, it's okay," he said.

We continued walking for a few awkward minutes.

"Can you just-tell me?," I asked carefully.

Albus sighed and shook his head.

"Please, I won't say anything or judge you," I begged.

"Well obviously, you probably did that a long time ago, didn't you?," Albus said. I couldn't think of anything to say to that so Albus continued. "And you will say something, you always do."

How did he manage to make that sound offensive?

I frowned. "I still think I have the right to know, considering-"

"Will you just shut up, I won't tell you either way," Albus cut in.

"Don't tell me to shut up, I have a right to know!," I said angrily.

"Yeah, and I have the right by to tell you!," Albus said, sounding equally pissed now.

"No you don't!"

"Yes I do!"

"You don't!"

"I DO!"

"YOU-"

"Both of you shut up! What's going on?"

I whipped round: it was Rose. I should have known.

"Where's the boyfriend, then?," I asked, smirking.

"None of your business," Rose said shortly. "Anyway, what's going on? The whole of Hogsmeade was staring at you."

We were standing near Zonko's and almost the exact spot that Albus and I kissed last time, I realised with a shock.

"Right, so are you going to tell me?," Rose asked, folding her arms.

"What's going on? No," Albus said.

I made a face at him. "You aren't telling anyone anything," I said accusingly. "He's not telling me why he was mad at me a few weeks ago," I told Rose.

"Because I have the right to withhold information from you!," Albus said.

"Well I have the right to know since there was no explanation and I was the one who was affected!," I argued back.

"That's not a right," Albus snorted.

"It is!," I said indignantly.

"Oh come on, you know it isn't," Albus said. "Is it, Rose?"

Rose chewed her lip, thinking. "Well I think Albus is right," she said. "I mean, think he doesn't have to say now, but he should tell her at some point," she added quickly, seeing my furious glare.

"Right, today or tomorrow would be great, I don't really care which one," I said, grabbing Albus's arm. "You can go join your fiancé now," I added to Rose.

I ignored her spluttering and pulled Albus into Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.

"Is there a reason why you randomly decided I drag me here?," Albus asked, rubbing his arm from where I had been holding him.

"Nope." I turned away from him to look at the new born Pygmy Puffs. "I think I'll get one of these. They're really cute."

"You have 10 galleons?," Albus asked doubtfully.

"Fuck, how do you know they cost 10 galleons?," I asked. He pointed at the bottom of the large cage the Pygmy Puffs were in, where a label has been stuck, 10 galleons written in big gold print.

"Well shit," I said. "I'll get a Skiving Snackbox then, we'll definitely be needing them for NEWTs."

We decided to go to The Three Broomsticks to get a drink after I had paid for the Snackbox. The air was warm and there was a welcoming scent of pastries as we stepped in.

"Thank Merlin," Albus said. "It was freezing outside."

"Tamara! Over here!" My eyes wandered around the room until I saw Violetta, waving her arms frantically like some madman. Or madwoman.

Violetta was sitting next to Louis, Rose, Scorpius, Celesta, James, Ariadne and my brother Fred were also there. They were all crowded around two tables that had been put together at the back. Albus and I picked our way through the tables until we had reached them.

"Hi guys," I said, taking my hat off.

"Come sit here," James said. "Accio chairs!" Two chairs zoomed towards us, narrowly missing my head.

"You idiot! That was so dangerous!," Rose scolded him.

"Oh leave him Rose," Celesta said. I sat down.

"I'll go get drinks," Albus said, a little awkwardly.

"Okay." I nodded. Albus went off.

"So...," Violetta said.

"So what?," I asked.

"Has he asked you out yet?," Violetta asked me impatiently.

"Well obviously, seeing as I'm here on a date with him and-"

"She means if he's asked you to be his girlfriend yet," Celesta said.

Louis groaned. "Do we always have to talk about this?," he said.

"Louis, mate, you just have to deal with it, it's what girls talk about," James said, shrugging.

"Girls are sad then," Fred said. I kicked him from under the table.

"Ow!," Ariadne yelped.

Oops.

"Sorry!," I gasped. "It was meant to be for Fred."

"Thanks a bunch," Fred muttered.

Albus came up, a Butterbeer in each hand, dropping into the seat next to me. I took a sip. Yum.

"Albus, you should ask Tamara out," Rose said matter-of-factly.

"What?," Albus asked, confused.

"Rose, you don't just tell someone to ask someone else out. Tamara's right here," James said, rolling his eyes.

"Can someone fill me in?," Albus asked, still confused.

Jesus he's thick.

"Rose is saying you should ask Tamara to be your girlfriend," Louis stated.

I put my head in my hands, feeling myself go red. These Weasleys and Potters were honestly so stupid. I was right next to them! I could hear everything!

Apparently Albus felt the same because his ears went very red and he looked extremely awkward.

I looked out of the window, wondering whether we should just leave to avoid further embarrassment, but to my surprise, saw that there were tiny white specks dropping into the already now white ground.

"It's snowing!," I exclaimed.

"Yes! Everyone outside! Snowball fight!," James yelled.

There were yells of delight as everyone scrambled to get to the door. They're like seven year olds.

I took a few last gulps if my Butterbeer before rushing out after them, trying to avoid all the stares that comes with being with friends with the Potters and Weasleys.

I found that there was already an intense snowball fight going on outside. I scraped some snow of a branch and crept behind Violetta, ready to shove the snow down her neck and-

"Agh!" A snowball hit me in the back of my head. I turned around to find Albus grinning at me. I gave him a mock glare and ran after him. He realised what I was going to do and took off. I chased him round and round, until I caught him and dumped the snow down the back of his coat.

"Agh!," he cried. "Oh my God, that feels so weird, it's melting!"

I laughed, scooping more snow off the ground. I moulded it into a ball and threw the ball at him. It caught him full in the face.

Brushing the snow off, Albus bent down, putting lots of snow together to make a huge lump and picked it up, a wicked grin on his face.

Oh fuck.

"Oh no you don't!," I cried, but he had already thrown it. Apparently he has a good aim because it hit my face, soaking it. I rubbed my cheeks with my gloved hands, hoping to warm my face up again.

Albus was laughing, and I found myself joining in.

"Come on, let's go get lunch," I said, when we had stopped laughing.

"Madam Puddifoot's?," Albus suggested.

I made a face. "Yuck," I said. "Definitely not."

I don't care if I had gone there last date with Albus, I had decided it was prissy and horrible.

"Ok, The Three Broomsticks then," Albus said. "And I'm paying."

"Whatever you want, Albus," I said.

We walked back to the pub slowly. Albus slipped his hand around my waist, and I tried to revel in this moment of my life that was now so much better than it had been at the beginning of the year. Maybe it just to do with the snow and the fact that it was very nearly almost Christmas. But I felt like my life was complete.

I had both my best friends back, I was on good terms with my cousin, I was friends with James and I had finally realised who I loved: Albus. And unlike before, I was willing to admit it.

"Albus?," I said, looking up at him. I saw he was deep in thought, hopefully savouring this moment too.

"What?," he asked.

"I love you." The words popped out of my mouth before I could stop them. I had been planning to ask him what we would have for lunch. Or maybe not.

Albus's face lit up and he smiled. "I love you too," he said.

A/N: Yay! And that's the end of the story! I'm doing an epilogue too, though. I'm not very good at endings so I'm sorry if it was crap and incredibly cheesy, but this is my first fanfic that isn't a one shot, so please be nice. Remember to review :)


	21. Epilogue: Nineteen Years Later

Tamara's POV

"FOR GOD'S SAKE VIOLET HURRY UP!," I yelled.

"I'm coming!" I heard my daughter's distant voice sounding from above. A few seconds later, there was a rush down the stairs and she stood in front of me.

Violet was thirteen and a Gryffindor at Hogwarts, names after my best friend Violetta Smith. She had inherited my brown eyes, but she had her father's jet black hair, which she had tied into a neat plait, reminding me strongly of Violetta.

"Where are your siblings?," I asked.

"Where's Dad?," Violet asked.

"The kitchen, why?," I asked.

"I need him to sign my Hogsmeade slip, remember?," she reminded me.

"Go and get Rosa and Harry, I'll sign your slip for you," I said. "Give it to me." Violet handed me the slip and I scribbled my signature on it. Having done my part, I sent her up to get my two other children.

Well they weren't children anymore but what else could I call them? My offspring? It sounded retarded.

"Albus, hurry up, we're leaving soon!," I called into the kitchen.

"Relax, we still have loads of time,"

Albus said, coming into view.

"No we don't! It's already quarter to eleven!," I told him.

"We can Apparate," Albus said.

I had nothing to say in retaliation so I yelled up the stairs for everyone else to hurry up.

There were a series of thuds as all three of my children thundered down the stairs at the same time. I scowled at them.

"What took you so long? Hurry up, we're almost late," I said.

"We have enough time, it's fine," Harry said. Violet agreed.

Harry was a Gryffindor who was jut starting his fifth year. He had my brown hair and brown eyes, but had a more laid back manner and didn't care much about academics. It had been Albus's idea to name him after his father, we had agreed that I would name the daughters and he would name the sons. I had thought Harry was a terrible name because Harry Potter the First had named his children after his parents because they had died when he was a baby, but it wasn't the case with Albus, I had pointed out to him. But Albus had insisted so our only son was called Harry Potter the Second.

Rosaline said nothing. She was the youngest of the three, this being her first year at Hogwarts, and was named after my other best friend, Rose Weasley. She also had my brown hair, but was the only one who had inherited Albus's bright green eyes. She was also quieter, but very intelligent. Rosaline reminded me of my sister Primrose, the only difference being their looks and that Rosaline was actually amazing at Quidditch, contrary to her aunt, who couldn't play if her life depended on it.

"Right," I said, checking my watch. It read ten to eleven. "We've wasted enough time, let's get a move on."

We Apparated to King's Cross and loaded our luggage onto the train with five minutes to spare. Violet and Harry waved goodbye and went off to find their friends, but Rosaline stayed with me and Albus the whole way. We met Rose, Violetta and Celesta.

"Tamara!," Rose greeted me.

"Hello Rose," I said.

"Ophelia passed her Apparition test," Rose told me excitedly.

"That's great!," I said, trying to sound enthusiastic. "Where's Scorpius? How is he?"

"He has a match, the Wimbourne Wasps are playing against the Chudley Canons," Rose said.

"Yes, James is there too, he's playing for the Chudley Canons," Celesta said.

"The Chudley Canons are rubbish," Violetta spoke up. "The Tornados are so much better."

"The Tornados are nearly at the bottom of the league already," Celesta snorted.

"Ophelia wants to join Tornados after her seventh year," Rose said before Violetta could think of a retort.

"Really? Cassandra wants to join too, but she still has three years until she graduates Hogwarts," Celesta said.

Cassandra and Ivy Potter were twin sisters who were starting their fourth year. Cassandra was very outgoing, she was good at Quidditch and was always doing stuff like setting Dungbombs in the kitchen. Ivy, on the other hand, was more of an introvert, she was also very good at Quidditch but not many people knew because she kept to herself. She and Rosaline got on very well whenever James and Celesta came to our house, which was very often.

I knew for a fact that Rosaline wanted to play Quidditch when she was older too, she was forever going on about it, but her ambition was to play for England at Quidditch World Cups.

"Rosa, you should get on the train," Albus said suddenly, glancing at his watch. Rosaline paled I could tell, her nerves were acting up.

"Are you okay?," I asked gently.

She shook her head.

"Nervous," she mumbled. I pulled her into a hug.

"You'll be fine," I said, stroking her hair. "Don't worry."

"What if I'm not in Gryffindor?," she asked.

I frowned. "There's nothing wrong with not being in Gryffindor," I said.

"But you and Dad were both in Gryffindor! Violet and Harry are in Gryffindor too!," Rosa said.

"So? Aunt Celesta wasn't in Gryffindor either," I said. "Neither was Aunt Primrose. Gryffindor isn't the perfect house for everyone."

"What house do you think I'll be in then?," Rosaline asked eagerly, pulling out of my embrace.

"Only the Sorting Hat knows," I said. I had a sneaking suspicion that she would be Hufflepuff but I wasn't about to tell her. "Quickly get on the train, it's about to leave."

"Remember to write to me!," she called as she stepped onto the train.

She appeared in the compartment Violet and Cassandra were sitting in a few seconds later, all three of them waving as the train began to move. Rosaline stuck her head out of the window, still waving. I waved back at her, until the train rounded a bend, and she was gone. I lowered my hand.

"She'll be fine, stop worrying," Albus said, slipping a hand round my waist.

"Not if her sixth year's anything like ours," I retorted.

"We still turned out fine, didn't we?," Albus said. "It was just sixth year that was a bit mad."

"I think you're still mad," I said, half serious, half joking.

"That's rich coming from you," Albus said. "Come on, I have to get to work."

"I have to go home and do nothing," I said flatly.

Albus laughed. "Well you can't be late for that, you have to get back as soon as possible," he said. I sighed, though feeling amused, and followed him through the barrier.

"See you later then," Albus said, and Apparated.

I sighed again, and Apparated back home. I wondered how this year would be staying at home by myself now that all three of my children had gone to Hogwarts and no one could keep me company.

I almost wished I was in sixth year again.

A/N: I know, I know, not the best ending but endings are harder than you think! Thank you to people who reviewed, I'm just happy that I finally got this story finished! Bear in mind that this was my first long fanfic so if there was a lot of stuff wrong with it, please don't be mean about it and I would really like it if you could review :)

lovegood27


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